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​We all know how important brand advocacy can be to the growth of a business, especially in the early stages. Brand advocates build your reputation through word of mouth marketing and ultimately win you new customers; word of mouth often being cited as the best kind of marketing, given that it&rsquo;s free! So instead, what is employee advocacy &ndash; and what benefit can it play in terms of growing not your revenues, but the team itself? Employee advocacy is effectively the same process, but pertaining to your current workforce telling those around them how great it is to do so &ndash; and elevating your desirability as an employer as a result. In today&rsquo;s world, employee advocacy is largely done online; your current team should be sharing what it&rsquo;s like to work for you, talking about how you&rsquo;re doing things differently, and ultimately promoting the company culture as a benefit to working for you via social media. Any candidate worth their salt will look into all of these things upon entering your recruitment process &ndash; and it might just make the difference when it comes to capturing the attention of the market&rsquo;s top talent. Activating your current employees as advocates could be the key tool to elevating your talent pipeline this year. Here are some of the benefits you can expect from having done so. Increased staff retention When a new hire has been enticed to come on board via employee advocacy, they already have a more sound understanding of what it&rsquo;s like to work for your business and have likely made a more informed decision than otherwise; having a visual of your company culture beforehand will leave them more excited to join. Seeing what their future team is up to before joining gives new hires a better idea of where they can make an impact from the off, helping them to set goals and envision their path toward achieving them. All of these aspects of employee advocacy throughout the hiring process combined mean that new hires are more purpose-driven, and more likely to build a longstanding career within your company. Increased organic applicants Do your employees love working for you? Then let them shout about it! When those your employees are connected with online begin seeing the enthusiasm your workforce hold in talking about their role, the company they work for and the company culture they embody, people are going to take notice. This will increase the number of people who add YOUR business to their &ldquo;target companies&rdquo; list, meaning that if and when their job search begins, your name will be on their lips. Organic applicants could mean direct approaches from individuals who want to work for you without a specific opportunity in mind, or even those who ask an agency like us to approach you on their behalf! Improved company culture Jobseekers want to join a company who have something about them; who promote great culture from within and take doing so seriously. Whilst you really have to live it to learn it, visible employee advocacy on social media can give a great insight to potential hires. And, as an added bonus for you &ndash; it means that in order to share it, your employees will have to be living it! Promoting a strong company culture externally means embodying it internally. So, make sure yours is well-defined and encourage your employees to let the world know what it&rsquo;s like to work here. Remember: company culture doesn&rsquo;t just mean posting pics of virtual lunch clubs or Zoom beers; it&rsquo;s about who your employees are, the ups and downs of their roles. The successes, the challenges, and how they overcame them. A final great thing about employee advocacy? Aside from being a great recruitment tool, it&rsquo;ll naturally help boost your business&rsquo; online presence, exposure and reach on social media. The business benefits that using employee advocacy to attract talent are numerous and vast in their advantage. When we work onsite with clients in a managed serviced capacity, this is all something which comes under what we do. We&rsquo;re here to find your next quality hires, but also to improve your overall recruitment strategy as an overarching service led by us. To learn more about how, get in touch today.

How Employee Advocacy Can Benefit Your Business

Recruitment, Simplified...

Staff turnover is a concept all leaders, HR teams and business owners have to contend with. It&rsquo;s a term often used interchangeably with employee attrition, churn, and many others, all of which effectively pose the same question: how many people are leaving your business, and how often do they come and go? Hiring costs money, so it follows that having an overview of the things which affect how long people stick around for is crucial to long-term, sustainable growth. As business leaders, when we hire a person, we&rsquo;re investing in them &ndash; be that time spent throughout the hiring process, costs associated with training, equipment and the like, and even the emotional investment which comes with making a key hire, one you believe could make a real difference to your company. Whilst attrition happens naturally in a lot of cases &ndash; retirements, redundancies, a friendly parting of ways even &ndash; there are things we can do to help. And the key is to first understand what might be causing people to leave. Here are some key areas which may be contributing to a high staff turnover in your business, along with what you can do to improve them. Hiring Process A huge aspect of employee turnover comes down to simply hiring the right people! If you&rsquo;re having employees come on board and leave before their time, or certainly sooner than you&rsquo;d expected or hoped, it&rsquo;s time to look at your recruitment process and ask questions as to where the disconnect is happening. Are you taking the time to find out all you need to know about each individual, from experience and suitability to cultural fit? Are you giving a true representation of what it&rsquo;s like to work for you? Are you staying true to the job you&rsquo;ve outlined for this person and the responsibilities it entails? Hire the right people to begin with, and your turnover rate will naturally reduce. Onboarding Issues with onboarding usually happen when an unrealistic expectation is set for the role during the interview process, and/or a lack of preparation on the business&rsquo; part for that all-important start date. Whilst this alone may not affect whether your employees stay or go as it were, what it does do is set a precedent &ndash; so it&rsquo;s important to get right. Have your onboarding process nailed down, including goals set, timelines built and expectations managed, then keep in constant contact for feedback throughout. This way, you&rsquo;ll be able to potentially see and then mitigate any issues before they lead to an employee leaving the company prematurely. Simply put: start as you mean to go on. Workplace Factors There are occasions when you&rsquo;re going to hire someone and they just won&rsquo;t be a fit &ndash; it&rsquo;s unfortunate, but inevitable, given that company culture is tricky to both identify and portray at interview. That being said, there are definite workplace factors you do have control over, and they can affect turnover massively. Such things include work-life balance; it&rsquo;s becoming evermore important, as is championing mental health. Showing you care about your employees&rsquo; wellbeing will go a long way to garnering their loyalty. On top of this, pay attention to employee relations internally, and make sure there&rsquo;s no toxicity growing amongst individuals or teams. Cultivate a positive, healthy workplace, and don&rsquo;t be surprised when employees stick around as a result. Overall, staff turnover is inevitable &ndash; but keeping in mind these key areas could go a long way to improving it at the very least. We help companies build workforce strategies which start from the initial hire, reaching through the onboarding process and beyond, to reduce turnover and make your business an employer of choice. To talk more about how, get in touch.

Staff Turnover: Areas for Improvement

​Being a marketer a few decades ago was a very different path from that of today. The explosive growth of the MarTech industry is not something to ignore.
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Although businesses had already been making use of digital strategies, the global pandemic caused an accelerated shift towards the digital revolution.
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The Marketing and Technology sectors have blended, MarTech is born - it&rsquo;s expanding at a rapid rate and now might be the most exciting time to upskill and make that career switch.
&nbsp;
What is MarTech?
&nbsp;
Marketing technology refers to the systems and tools that help marketers better engage with their audiences. These tools streamline and automate processes, saving marketing professionals heaps of time while enabling them to analyse the success of their efforts.
&nbsp;
Why MarTech?
&nbsp;
Modern marketing simply doesn&rsquo;t exist without MarTech. Digital transformation is as much about the development of people as it is technology. Today&rsquo;s marketing teams need a mix of creativity and technology to thrive.
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Businesses are seeking people with traditional marketing skills to blend with the next generation of technical tools. Balancing branding, communications and creative-based roles, with automation, analytics and data.
&nbsp;
Remote opportunities
&nbsp;
The pandemic accelerated existing trends in remote work. More than ever, people are looking to move past decades of 9-5 office-centric work, seeking new ways to operate, be it flexibly, remotely or part-time.
&nbsp;
Marketing was one of the leading sectors that thrived with flexibility and remote-working. The future of work is dispersed &ndash; with better work-life balance, less commuting stress and location freedom - working from home / wherever you fancy is more important than ever.
&nbsp;
The MarTech sector has put remote working at the forefront, with progressive businesses building remote teams.
&nbsp;
Lets you market smarter
&nbsp;
The innovation of MarTech tools enables you to be a better marketer, it&rsquo;s that simple. If you use Google Analytics to track performance on your website, or send emails through MailChimp, you're already using MarTech.
&nbsp;
Examples include:
&nbsp;
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Email marketing
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Content management systems
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Optimisation platforms
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Data analytics
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Customer data platforms
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Social media platforms
&nbsp;
Technologies like these save marketers time, making them more efficient and in turn able to deliver and measure results better.
&nbsp;
Accelerating salary
&nbsp;
Ambitious organisations are on the lookout for people to bridge the gap between marketing and tech. The synergy between the sectors has created a new profession and in turn, has elevated salaries and day rates.
&nbsp;
A recent LinkedIn study suggests that despite the pandemic and its economic consequences, opportunities in the marketing sector are only expanding, with roles in digital leading the charge.
&nbsp;
This is an exciting time to move into MarTech, particularly due to salary benefits. The Marketing Technology industry has consistently grown over the last five years. The revenue of this sector is expected to grow at an annual rate of 5.6% through 2021-22 and reach &pound;4.6 billion. With revenue on the rise, the average MarTech salary in the UK is &pound;50,000 per year, with entry positions starting at &pound;40,000 and more experienced candidates receiving &pound;78,000 a year.
&nbsp;
Self-service mindset
&nbsp;
The movement towards the remote work model has given people more control over how they work. Now, there are ample opportunities to enhance your existing skills in order to develop within modern marketing roles, like:
&nbsp;
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Program manager
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Martech project manager
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marketing technology product owner
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marketing technologist
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Digital marketing operations
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marketing automation
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marketing database, architect and integration
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marketing analytics, insights and science
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marketing tech business analyst
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Scrum master
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Growth hacker
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marketing Operations
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Account Executive SaaS
&nbsp;
Investment in MarTech
&nbsp;
Before the pandemic, investment in MarTech was on the rise. On average, brands in the UK and North America are spending 26% of their overall marketing budgets on MarTech, which includes automation software, analytics tools and artificial intelligence.
&nbsp;
MarTech isn&rsquo;t going anywhere, and it only plans to get bigger. While the world pieces itself back together, companies are investing in marketing platforms at rapid rates. Many are also hiring people with varied, broad marketing backgrounds and skill sets.
&nbsp;
Tips for the emerging Marketing Technologist
&nbsp;
Choosing to develop your knowledge with in-demand, transferable digital marketing skills will keep you on the path to professional success.
&nbsp;
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Get involved in online MarTech communities
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Read leading insights
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Check out courses like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marketing-technology.academy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The MarTech Academy</a>
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Listen to&nbsp;<a href="https://martechpod.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The MarTech Podcast</a>
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Connect with people in the industry (networking events, LinkedIn)
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Upskill with platforms like&nbsp;<a href="https://skillshop.withgoogle.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Skillshop</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&amp;ai=DChcSEwixwqG0-efzAhWV6-0KHaQlCjkYABAAGgJkZw&amp;ae=2&amp;ohost=www.google.com&amp;cid=CAESQeD2dR9dNiyCXQtsf5L0S3CF5WNXc0CWRNCuuH2StTIz_kBXB_Qt9H1SKkwoS-b55izwqbq3h1j_9cbiCN8e_-7P&amp;sig=AOD64_2-DrY8vnfDDolY8nlBWdCHfHUdew&amp;q&amp;adurl&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjS1Jq0-efzAhVIgVwKHVDnAVoQ0Qx6BAgCEAE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HubSpot Academy</a>
&nbsp;
The digital revolution has not only had a dramatic impact on how we recruit for talented candidates, but it&rsquo;s also introduced a whole new world of roles on the market.
&nbsp;
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Are you ready to take the leap?
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
At Certus, we embrace all things digital, adapting and refining our offering as the space evolves.
&nbsp;
We&rsquo;re always looking out for fresh talent to match with innovative and exciting organisations. If you&rsquo;re looking for advice or your next opportunity,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com/company/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener">get in touch.</a>

There’s Never Been A Better Time To Switch To MarTech

Have you ever taken a sip of your drink, only to find that it&rsquo;s not at all what you expected? If you thought it was water and find yourself sipping a diet coke, the feeling is unpleasant &ndash; no matter how much you might like diet coke usually. That&rsquo;s because you weren&rsquo;t expecting it. When it comes to managing expectations, there&rsquo;s no skill more important in terms of building strong, happy relationships. In business, this applies to all parties; your clients, customers, colleagues, even your own boss and those who report directly to you. To give an example: if you make a promise to deliver a piece of work in ten days and have it completed in seven, you&rsquo;re a hero. If you made the promise to be done within five but deliver in seven, there&rsquo;s going to be disappointment. The outcome is the same &ndash; the work was delivered in seven days &ndash; but in the case of the latter, because you didn&rsquo;t properly manage expectations the relationship has been negatively impacted. So, whether you&rsquo;re a manager, salesperson, business owner or otherwise, here are some things to think about when it comes to managing expectations &ndash; moreover, how doing so can really improve and strengthen the relationships you build across the board. Managing your employees&rsquo; expectations Unaddressed employee expectations can unfortunately lead to demotivation, and sometimes even resentment in the workplace. This means you need to clearly define what your responsibilities are as the leader, communicate these to your team and then be accountable for fulfilling these actions. In the employee-manager relationship, many things can fall under &lsquo;expectations&rsquo;. This could be the expectation of one-on-one coaching, regular reviews or feedback; the expectation that you&rsquo;ll step in to help close a deal; even down to making sure your team understands when you&rsquo;re available, i.e. if it&rsquo;s okay to get in touch outside of working hours or not. If your direct reports are expecting something from you &ndash; even something intangible like support or guidance &ndash; it&rsquo;s your job to address this by either providing it or, if it shouldn&rsquo;t be coming from you, pointing them in the right direction instead. Miscommunication of expectations can cause myriad problems and disappointments in the workplace &ndash; which will inevitably affect performance in the long run. Managing your customers&rsquo; expectations Whilst we don&rsquo;t necessarily want to champion the somewhat old fashioned &ldquo;under-promise, over-deliver&rdquo; stance, managing expectations is key to building a long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationship with your customers. Instead, try to take more of a &ldquo;be realistic and deliver your best&rdquo; attitude, remaining transparent, open and honest throughout the journey. Whether you work in recruitment like us or another industry entirely, it&rsquo;s universally understood that humans want to know where they stand &ndash; meaning even if it&rsquo;s not the answer we want, we&rsquo;d rather be told the truth. Managing your customers&rsquo; expectations means giving regular updates, making no excuses and being accountable at all costs. Building a relationship on anything less just simply doesn&rsquo;t cut it; building relationships on expertly managed expectations means that even when things don&rsquo;t go exactly to plan, challenges can be overcome (as opposed to the relationship ending on a sour note). Managing the expectations on yourself Regardless of where you sit in the hierarchy of the company &ndash; you could be just starting out or own the whole show &ndash; there are people to report into and progress to manage. Whether that&rsquo;s being held accountable for keeping the board or SMT updated, or simply checking in with your employees for a quarterly business rundown and review, it&rsquo;s important to keep those who need to be in the loop just so. Being a great manager of expectations is a sure-fire way to build your persona as a strong leader; someone who&rsquo;s dependable, reliable and accountable. No nasty surprises, misleading or misinformation. Managing expectations means your customers get better service, your employees learn from your exemplary practices, and your own boss &ndash; whoever they might be, directly or indirectly &ndash; is happy and content. It&rsquo;s no secret that the management of expectations is an area where the recruitment industry has fallen down historically. I couldn&rsquo;t be more proud that, across all three Certus brands, we endeavour to change that in every communication we undertake &ndash; and every relationship we build to prove it. To learn more about the difference you&rsquo;ll find in partnering with us, get in touch.

The Importance of Managing Expectations

Sustainable Hiring Practices (Video)

Taking recruitment solutions to another level!​ What does a Managed Service offering form Certus look like?
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Managed Services - Recruitment (Video)

Its job application time - here's some fundamental advice: Be selective! ​First impression count! Read the job description! Tailor your cover letter / CV! Attention to detail! ...
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Job Applications - No Spamming (Video)

​Training, mentoring, coaching and managing &ndash; so many verbs, so little time. As a business leader or manager, there are many ways we go about trying to improve the skills and performance of our teams, largely through proactive training and coaching &ndash; but what defines these two activities from one another, and in what ratio should we be doing them? First, understanding the difference. Training: by definition, it means &lsquo;the action of teaching a person (or animal) a particular skill or behaviour&rsquo;. The aim is to increase an individual&rsquo;s productivity, capability and performance through learning something new. Training is essentially the act of&nbsp;transferring knowledge&nbsp;&ndash; knowledge which you possess, and the individual being trained does not, yet. Coaching: whilst certainly considered a form of training, coaching is about&nbsp;enhancing an existing skill or skills, rather than teaching a new one. Coaching is to be carried out by someone who&rsquo;s experienced in the matter, helping another individual understand how to better conduct the skill in question; demonstrating, leading by example and mentoring to improve on what they know already. Is it important to do both? Training your staff not only grows the tool set they use to do their job, but keeps them challenged and engaged; that it can naturally lead to promotion and progression makes training one of the main keys to improving retention and reducing turnover. Coaching is just as important &ndash; as humans, particularly those working in the corporate world, we&rsquo;re always looking for self-improvement, higher performance; ways to do things &lsquo;better&rsquo;. Coaching your employees on an ongoing basis and showing them, from your own or someone else&rsquo;s experience, a better way to do things is going to allow them to remain creative, motivated and fulfilled in their role. To answer the question, yes, it&rsquo;s crucial to do both; take a well-rounded approach to learning, whether it&rsquo;s been specified as something the employee must learn to carry out their duties (e.g. learning a new piece of software), or it&rsquo;s simply something which would benefit all parties were it done better (for instance, sales coaching to increase conversion rates). So, which should I be doing with my staff? Once you have the above definitions in mind, it becomes easier to know whether you should be coaching your staff or training them.
<ul>
<li>
Training&nbsp;is something which can be done in a group setting; imparting knowledge to more than one person at the same time
</li>
<li>
Training&nbsp;usually takes a very structured approach; it will follow a set path which needs to be done in a certain order for it to be understood
</li>
<li>
Training&nbsp;is frequently held off-site, online or otherwise; it&rsquo;s not something which is usually done fully &lsquo;on the job&rsquo;
</li>
<li>
Coaching&nbsp;will usually be conducted in a one-on-one setting; it requires attention as to where the person&rsquo;s skill level sits currently (compared to training, where the idea is that everyone begins at zero)
</li>
<li>
More often than not,&nbsp;coaching&nbsp;will be unstructured; it involves ongoing communication and change to be effective
</li>
<li>
Coaching&nbsp;usually takes place &lsquo;on the job&rsquo; &ndash; it requires input from the activity being coached itself in order to achieve real results
</li>
</ul>
One thing is for sure, training without coaching rarely works. Picking up an employee or team and dropping them into a classroom for a day (or more!) then sending back to their day job with no follow-up or ongoing reflection is pretty close to a waste of time and money. But a piece of great and relevant training that is supported by ongoing and regular coaching is likely to lead to significant and clear returns. And, finally, how does knowing all of this positively impact my staff turnover rate? It&rsquo;s really important that business leaders understand the difference between coaching and training; knowing what your employees want and need with regards to their development within the company fundamentally comes down to learning. Should they be aiming to learn a new skill? Is this what will push their career forward and land them a promotion into the role they&rsquo;re hoping for? Or, will simply honing one of the skills they use already be the thing which helps them reach their goal? Of course, there&rsquo;s a huge cross over between the two &ndash; training and coaching can often be done at the same time. And understanding which of them is going to help your employees progress will go a long way to ensuring they&rsquo;re satisfied, engaged and motivated to stay with your organisation. The definition between training and coaching goes further than your management style and business leadership; it touches upon the ongoing development of each and every staff member, the structure of your company, and the longevity your employees see within it as a result. With 20 years of working in recruitment and headhunting, I&rsquo;ve seen the insides of many companies and it&rsquo;s those with a balance of both that have typically demonstrated consistent growth. I&rsquo;m proud of running a business which truly helps others to define, execute and improve their human capital strategy and the right mix of training and coaching must form a part of it. Certus are more than just a recruitment company; get in touch to hear more about partnering with a Certus Recruitment Group company and what we can do to help your business grow, today.

Coaching Vs Training and How To Improve Staff Retention

In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, securing top-tier talent is the linchpin to sustained success. Today, I'd like to shed light on the transformative benefits of engaging a recruitment agency on a retained basis, a strategic move that not only enhances your hiring process but also amplifies your company's competitive edge.
🌟 Improved Candidate Experience:
A retained recruitment partnership provides an unparalleled commitment to sourcing the best-fit candidates. By cultivating a long-term relationship with a recruitment agency, your organisation benefits from a dedicated team of experts who invest the time to truly understand your company culture, values, and unique hiring needs.
This depth of understanding translates into a refined and singularly positive candidate experience. Prospective hires encounter a seamless journey, from initial outreach to the final stages of the interview process. This not only strengthens your employer brand but also fosters a positive perception among potential candidates, setting the stage for lasting relationships.
💼 Single Candidate Experience Advantage:
Imagine a recruitment process where each candidate feels like the most important person in the room and where each candidate is measured in a consistent manner. In a retained recruitment model, the recruitment methodology is not different for each candidate as they've been sourced by different people; it's consistent for all involved and laser-focused on your organisation's needs. This leads to a personalised and cohesive candidate experience, ensuring that every interaction reflects your commitment to excellence. It also increases dramatically the likelihood of your hiring the best candidate!
Candidates engaged through a retained recruitment agency benefit from a streamlined process, with clear communication and a tailored approach. This single candidate experience not only reinforces your employer brand as one that values individuals but also contributes to a more positive and efficient hiring journey.
💰 Financial Return and Reduced Likelihood of Failure:
Beyond the qualitative benefits, a retained recruitment strategy translates to a quantifiable advantage for your bottom line. The thorough understanding of your company's needs, coupled with a targeted approach, reduces the likelihood of hiring missteps. This, in turn, mitigates the financial impact associated with failed hires, saving both time and resources.
The investment in a retained recruitment agency is an investment in risk mitigation. By ensuring that each candidate is not only technically proficient but also culturally aligned, you're enhancing the probability of long-term success and minimizing the potential costs associated with turnover.
🚀 Faster Time to Hire:
Time is of the essence in the tech industry, where innovation happens at breakneck speed. A retained service provided by a trusted partner should be seen as an accelerator, significantly reducing time-to-hire metrics. With a committed team working exclusively on your mandates, the search and selection process becomes streamlined and efficient.
By accessing an established network of top-tier talent, a retained recruitment service swiftly identifies candidates who align with your organization's goals. This proactive approach ensures that you not only secure the best talent faster but also gain a crucial competitive advantage in the talent market.
In summary, choosing a retained recruitment model is an investment in precision, commitment, and accelerated success. By optimising the candidate experience, reducing the likelihood of failure, and expediting time-to-hire, your organisation is better positioned to navigate the dynamic challenges of the technology landscape.
Let's embark on this journey together, ensuring that your team is composed of the brightest minds ready to propel your company to new heights.
Feel free to connect if you'd like to explore how a partnership with Certus Recruitment Group can be tailored to elevate your talent acquisition strategy.
#TechLeadership #TalentAcquisition #RecruitmentStrategy #Innovation #Leadership #HiringExcellence 🚀✨

Elevating Your Talent Acquisition Strategy: The Power of Retained Recruitment

​As managers, we have to be conscious of what we say and how we say it. Effective communication is arguably the most fundamental key to a high-performing team, one which achieves their goals and drives business forward. But there are two sides to communication: let&rsquo;s call them speaking and listening for now. Speaking covers everything you as a manager choose to say, how you say it, when it&rsquo;s delivered, and how you respond to others. Listening is how everything you say is interpreted by your team. How they perceive the communication you&rsquo;re offering. And, importantly, how they feel about it. Which is where the question of intent vs impact comes in. You know what you&rsquo;re trying to achieve &ndash; but were you able to deliver it in such a way that made your intentions clear? To ensure the same impact is felt across the team &ndash; as in, every person is now feeling the same way (engaged, motivated, etc) and driven toward that same goal? Take the following sentence: &ldquo;These results aren&rsquo;t good enough. What went wrong?&rdquo; It&rsquo;s bold, it&rsquo;s blunt; the intention is to problem solve and understand where the improvement needs to be made, sharpish. It&rsquo;s a sentence which, when said aloud, is hopefully going to prompt action of some sort. But what impact did this sentence have on the team? Some may take it in their stride and want to review things with you, taking time to analyse, understand, and create a plan to improve. On the other hand, another employee has immediately switched off, presuming that you as manager are taking no accountability; the blame is on the team. Your intention was to share ideas, work together to solve a problem &ndash; but the impact on some, maybe many individuals, could be demotivation and disengagement. Communication in management is a funny one, because we&rsquo;re often bound to doing everything at once. Manage each work style differently, pay attention to the individual; equally, find a way to communicate with the team at large which doesn&rsquo;t alienate any one person, a cover-all, if you like. No one said it would be easy. So, how could we word the sentence above for a more inclusive overall feel, one which delivers your intentions AND has the desired impact? How about, &ldquo;We know we can do better than this &ndash; where can we improve next time?&rdquo; Or, &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s what I think about how we can improve &ndash; what other ideas can we come up with?&rdquo; These both denote accountability, inclusivity and ownership &ndash; as both an individual and a team. The intention is clear, and the impact should in most cases be a positive one &ndash; one which gets everyone working towards what you&rsquo;re trying to achieve. You&rsquo;ve communicated now that this is our problem &ndash; and we&rsquo;ll solve it like the team we are. All of this is particularly important when we&rsquo;re managing new teams, or those with new hires amongst them. In high-trust relationships, where each party knows the other well, we learn to read between the lines of what&rsquo;s actually being said or meant by comments or questions to find the real meaning. But, for the newer relationships, this can&rsquo;t always be done. Directions, questions or otherwise may be misconstrued, and this alone is where the onboarding of new employees often falls down. So, as a manager of people, how can you turn your intentions into the impact you&rsquo;re after? &bull; Communicate clearly and openly, without pointing fingers or placing blame (or even hinting towards doing so). &bull; Cultivate a team-feel, rather than an &ldquo;us and them&rdquo;, manager vs employees atmosphere &ndash; get rid of those hierarchical barriers. &bull; Ask for feedback and encourage employees to speak up for clarification if they&rsquo;re unsure on something, and to voice their opinions candidly, without fear of repercussions for doing so. &bull; Make sure that you fully understand your own intentions before heading into any communication with the team &ndash; if you&rsquo;re unsure of what you&rsquo;re after, they undoubtedly will be too. Over time, as you build trust, communication across your team becomes easier. With that being said, you&rsquo;ll want to know that your team is receptive to your management and communication style before you even make the hire &ndash; which is where we come in. To talk workforce solutions and learn more about how we pre-qualify all this and more at interview stage, get in touch.

Intentions vs Impact – How Communication Can Make or Break Your Management Success

Periods of self-reflection have encouraged people worldwide to rethink the role of work in their lives.
Recent months have seen a significant increase in job transitions, with many seeking greater fulfillment and a chance to explore new career paths by leveraging their transferable skills.
Transferable skills are those abilities that remain valuable across different roles and industries. They can be technical, such as data analysis, or interpersonal, such as relationship building. These skills are essential in helping individuals land new roles, even in areas where their experience may not appear directly aligned.
<h3>Why Are Employers Hiring for Transferable Skills?</h3>
<ul>
<li>
Improved Efficiency and Productivity Transferable skills foster collaboration and adaptability in the workplace.
</li>
<li>
Strengthened Working Relationships Employees with strong interpersonal skills can better engage with colleagues and clients.
</li>
<li>
Skillset Potential Employers value candidates who can grow into new responsibilities, recognizing that transferable skills often signal potential.
</li>
</ul>
Employees with transferable skills often bring unique perspectives and can exceed the traditional boundaries of their roles. As a result, more organizations are moving away from rigid recruitment criteria to hire individuals with strong potential and diverse skill sets. This approach adds fresh perspectives, fosters innovation, and can bring immense value to teams.
<hr>
<h3>Think Outside the Box</h3>
Some skills are job-specific, but transferable skills apply across industries. Understanding your values and abilities is key to creating a more fulfilling professional life.
Transferable skills evolve throughout your career. By identifying and developing them, you can position yourself for growth and new opportunities, whether within your current role or in a different field entirely.
<hr>
<h3>Key Transferable Skills in Demand</h3>
When applying for roles, showcasing transferable skills effectively on your CV is essential. These skills span categories such as research, planning, interpersonal abilities, and technical expertise.
Some examples include:
<ul>
<li>Problem-solving</li>
<li>Data analysis</li>
<li>Critical thinking</li>
<li>Leadership</li>
<li>Teamwork</li>
<li>Adaptability</li>
<li>Decision-making</li>
<li>Communication</li>
<li>Empathy</li>
<li>Project management</li>
<li>Creativity</li>
<li>Technical proficiency</li>
</ul>
Transferable skills enhance your adaptability and help you stand out during the job application process.
<hr>
<h3>The Takeaways</h3>
<ul>
<li>Transferable skills are valuable across all industries and roles.</li>
<li>They include both hard skills (e.g., technical abilities) and soft skills (e.g., relationship-building).</li>
<li>Investing in your transferable skills strengthens your career prospects and flexibility.</li>
</ul>
The best part? Transferable skills are yours to keep. They grow with you, enabling you to adapt, innovate, and excel in your professional journey.
If you're exploring new opportunities or seeking to grow your team, reach out to find the right match for your needs.

The Time For Transferable Skills

<article class="blog__content">
Starting Fresh in 2025: Embracing Change for a Stronger Year Ahead
With the dawn of a new year less than 2 months away, many of us feel inspired to reflect on past achievements, assess what worked well, identify areas for improvement, and lay out our goals for the year ahead.
At Certus, we live by the ethos, "If you always do what you&rsquo;ve always done, you&rsquo;ll always get what you&rsquo;ve always got." Embracing change isn&rsquo;t just an option; it&rsquo;s a necessity for growth. This year, we&rsquo;re not only accepting change but actively championing it. We know the path to improvement isn&rsquo;t always smooth, but it&rsquo;s essential. Here are some key behaviours that business leaders should embrace in 2025 to foster growth and transformation:
<h3>1. Seeking Out What&rsquo;s Working &ndash; and What Isn&rsquo;t</h3>
Embracing change means being willing to face difficult truths and deepening self-awareness. This year, business leaders should actively seek feedback and identify areas for improvement, not just by relying on internal perceptions but by reaching out to external voices as well. In today&rsquo;s feedback-driven world, customer input can be a powerful catalyst for positive change. Rather than merely collecting testimonials, engage customers through surveys and ask what can be improved&mdash;whether in product, service, communication, or beyond.
Recognizing and amplifying what works is crucial, but where there&rsquo;s room for change, there&rsquo;s room for growth.
<h3>2. Understanding the Why &ndash; and Then the When</h3>
When implementing changes, it&rsquo;s vital to convey the reasoning behind them to your team. As a business leader, you should be able to clearly articulate the benefits and purpose behind every change, inspiring confidence and enthusiasm. Change for change&rsquo;s sake can disengage people&mdash;help them understand why each decision matters.
At the same time, knowing when to let things progress naturally is key. Effective change management is about balancing timing with intent. Lead your team with a solid &lsquo;why&rsquo; for each initiative, guiding them through transformations with clarity and purpose.
<h3>3. Promoting Goals and Vision Amidst Change</h3>
One of the most important qualities to maintain during times of change is a consistent commitment to your company&rsquo;s vision and values. When the pace of change accelerates, people can feel uncertain or uneasy; clear communication and consistent messaging are vital to keep employees grounded in the organization&rsquo;s mission.
While navigating through transformation, remember that the values that define your company should remain visible and steady. Change may be inevitable, but a strong and authentic culture offers stability and assurance, allowing teams to embrace new directions with trust and confidence.
<hr>
<h3>A New Year&rsquo;s Challenge: Change as a Path to Growth</h3>
As humans, we often resist change; as business leaders, we must embrace it to propel our companies forward. Even in seemingly straightforward tasks, like broadening your hiring profile or rethinking talent strategies, openness to change can make a real difference. It&rsquo;s not always easy, but it can yield incredible rewards.
What plans do you have for 2025 to drive your business forward? What other qualities do you see as essential to fostering a culture that embraces change?
</article>

Three Behaviours of Leaders Who Are Embracing Change In 2025

As business leaders, there&rsquo;s a challenge many of us encounter throughout our careers, though it&rsquo;s not often openly discussed: workplace friction, especially between managers and new employees. What happens when you bring someone new onto your team, only to realise that aligning on goals and expectations might be more difficult than anticipated?
The key question here is: are you and your new hire working towards the same objectives? Are your priorities aligned? Do you both have a shared understanding of the business direction and how to achieve success?
When you expand your team &ndash; whether it&rsquo;s in a small, one-on-one start-up environment or within a large-scale operation &ndash; several factors can create friction, frustration, and ultimately a dip in productivity. It&rsquo;s no wonder that &ldquo;managing up&rdquo; has become a prominent trend in corporate culture over the past few years.
Oftentimes, tension arises from differences in work styles. Some people thrive in a more spontaneous, flexible environment, while others prefer structure and clear processes. When these differing approaches meet &ndash; especially when one is managing the other &ndash; it can lead to confusion, miscommunication, and a lack of clarity around expectations. This is when employees may start feeling unsure about their role or how to move forward.
This is where the concept of "managing up" comes in.
The idea is simple: no matter your level within an organisation, your manager&rsquo;s success is tied to yours. So, it&rsquo;s in your best interest to understand how they work best and what will help both of you thrive. Managing up is about proactively fostering communication and clarity, empowering your team to get what they need from you in order to do their best work.
One effective way to encourage managing up is to hold regular one-on-one meetings led by the employee. This gives them a safe, private space to ask questions, seek feedback, and discuss challenges they may not feel comfortable addressing in a larger team setting. By letting the employee set the agenda, you not only gain insights into their needs, but also into how they think and work &ndash; which can help you manage them more effectively.
Another approach is to engage in collaborative goal-setting exercises. Taking the team out of the office for a more relaxed strategy session can foster open dialogue, idea-sharing, and the development of shared goals. It&rsquo;s important to create alignment between the company&rsquo;s goals and your employees&rsquo; personal objectives, ensuring everyone feels motivated and invested in the long-term success of the team.
Workplace tension doesn&rsquo;t always stem from personality clashes. Sometimes, it&rsquo;s simply a matter of different working styles creating roadblocks to effective communication. By fostering a culture that supports managing up, you&rsquo;re likely to see not only greater employee engagement but also improved motivation and stronger overall relationships within the team.
Whether you&rsquo;re managing a team of one or one hundred, our expert consultants are here to help. We specialize in building and retaining top talent, and our commitment doesn&rsquo;t end once a placement is made. Our exceptional after-care services set us apart as a leader in the recruitment space. Reach out to us today to discuss your goals and hiring strategies &ndash; we&rsquo;re here to support your success.

Why Managing Up Needs to Be Part of Your Strategy

As we navigate through 2024, understanding salary trends within the US technology sector is crucial for companies aiming to attract and retain top talent. The latest Salary Survey Report offers a comprehensive look at how compensation varies across different states and roles, providing valuable insights for HR leaders, finance managers, and hiring professionals. Here&rsquo;s a breakdown of what you need to know.
<h3>Salary Trends by Role and Location</h3>
<h4>Sales Roles</h4>
Sales roles within the US technology sector show significant geographic variation:
<ul>
<li>Sales Development Representatives (SDRs): In California, SDRs earn between $60,000 and $85,000, whereas in Florida, the range is $50,000 to $70,000.</li>
<li>Sales Directors: Compensation is highest in California, with salaries ranging from $150,000 to $250,000, while in Illinois and Texas, salaries are slightly lower, ranging from $130,000 to $220,000.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Marketing Roles</h4>
Marketing professionals also see salary differences across states:
<ul>
<li>Digital Marketing Managers in California can earn between $95,000 and $130,000, while in Florida, salaries range from $75,000 to $110,000.</li>
<li>Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs): In New York, CMOs earn between $190,000 and $280,000, slightly less than their California counterparts who earn $200,000 to $300,000.</li>
</ul>
<h4>IT Roles</h4>
IT roles continue to command competitive salaries, particularly in tech-heavy regions:
<ul>
<li>Software Developers in California earn between $80,000 and $160,000, while those in Florida earn between $65,000 and $130,000.</li>
<li>Network/Cloud Engineers in California are compensated between $80,000 and $140,000, with lower ranges in Florida ($65,000 to $110,000).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Impact of Company Size on Salaries</h3>
The size of a company plays a significant role in determining salary packages:
<ul>
<li>Small Companies (1-200 employees): May offer higher base salaries to make up for less comprehensive benefits packages or offer equity as an incentive.</li>
<li>Medium Companies (200-1,000 employees): Typically offer balanced salaries with solid benefits packages.</li>
<li>Large Companies (1,000+ employees): Often provide robust overall packages but might cap top-end salaries.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Economic and Market Influences</h3>
Several factors are influencing salary trends in 2024:
<ul>
<li>Economic Rebound: The post-pandemic recovery has increased demand for sales professionals, particularly in competitive markets like New York and California.</li>
<li>Inflation: Rising inflation has led to higher salaries, especially in states with a high cost of living, such as California and New York.</li>
<li>Remote Work: The shift towards remote work has led to more standardized salaries across regions, reducing the disparity between tech hubs and other areas.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Short-Term Predictions</h3>
As we move forward in 2024, several trends are likely to shape the salary landscape:
<ul>
<li>Continued Demand for Tech Professionals: The tech sector will maintain high demand for roles in software development, cybersecurity, and cloud computing, driving salaries upward.</li>
<li>Retention Strategies: Companies are expected to enhance benefits and bonuses to retain top talent, particularly for senior IT roles.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Recommendations for Employers</h3>
To stay competitive in the current job market, companies should:
<ul>
<li>Align compensation packages with market rates and offer attractive variable compensation.</li>
<li>Leverage remote work policies to broaden the recruitment pool.</li>
<li>Invest in professional development to advance employees' skills and careers.</li>
<li>Monitor market trends to make data-driven decisions about salary offers and recruitment strategies.</li>
</ul>
Click <a title="US Salary Survey" href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com/annual-global-salary-survey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> for a full copy of our 2024 US Salary Survey.

2024 US Salary Trends: Key Insights for Sales, Marketing, and IT Professionals

So, you think you&rsquo;re a good listener I hear? See what I did there? Funny. Listening skills &ndash; in my humble opinion, the most imperative skill to success in the corporate world. Think about the lines of work/professions out there to which they apply; the obvious ones like sales, marketing, customer service. Even the techy world, to a degree &ndash; I&rsquo;m by no means an expert but, I think it&rsquo;s safe to say that in order to build or develop the program your employer is after, you need to listen to their goals and requirements. As a specialist sales recruiter, I&rsquo;m constantly exploring my candidates&rsquo; listening capabilities, given that they&rsquo;re paramount to my clients&rsquo; success. The sales profession aside, being a good listener will bring you success across many aspects of life; you&rsquo;ll be able to build stronger relationships both personal and professional, learn faster and generally understand more. Listening: the universal skill. But did you know that there are many different types of listening? Different ways in which we approach what we&rsquo;re hearing. Such as&hellip; Biased listening Yes, there really is such a thing as hearing what you want to hear. When we&rsquo;re &lsquo;biased listening&rsquo;, we&rsquo;re solely picking out the pieces of information which confirm our own opinion, feeling, point of view. We purely hear the bits which confirm our own bias. Appreciative listening Probably the most widely-utilised type of listening &ndash; think music, or waking up to the sound of birds, or anything narrated by David Attenborough. Appreciative listening is, like it says on the tin, listening for the simple enjoyment of it; listening for pleasure. Critical listening Contrary to how it sounds, critical listening doesn&rsquo;t necessarily pertain to something negative &ndash; it simply means thinking about what you&rsquo;re listening to and cutting through the pieces you don&rsquo;t need to get to the heart of the matter. Critical listening is what we&rsquo;re doing when we understand something, and it&rsquo;s this type of listening which is crucial for success in the business world. There are so many circumstances in a day-to-day job where simply listening to and understanding a colleague, customer or otherwise makes a big difference. We humans are also somehow equipped with the innate ability to pick up on when a person is NOT listening &ndash; something those of us in relationships will have probably understand, having been called out by the significant other a few times&hellip; Anyway, moving swiftly on. Here are my most important 3 ways to be a better listener: Pay attention And I mean full attention. To the best of your ability, remove any and all distractions. If it&rsquo;s an important phone call, go somewhere quiet, where you won&rsquo;t have to contend with outside noise or be bothered by anyone. If you&rsquo;re having a meeting with a client or new customer, having your phone out on the table (yes, even face down) is definitely a distraction &ndash; some tiny part of your mind is still wondering if and when the phone will ring, and readying itself to respond or react when it does. Or, perhaps you&rsquo;re a manager &ndash; if an employee comes to you with a question, concern or otherwise, making sure you pay rapt attention to their coming is a great way to build employee relations and engagement. Oh, and it&rsquo;s just polite, too. Ask questions How do you know when someone&rsquo;s really understood what you&rsquo;re saying? When they start asking intelligent questions about it. Use questions to clarify points you want to ensure you &lsquo;got&rsquo;, or to garner more information on a certain part. Repeat things using your own words in order to qualify them as correct. Ask questions based on what they&rsquo;re saying, rather than your own immediate response. This can be applied to any and all business settings &ndash; a client meeting. Discussing a technical problem with your service provider. In a job interview. Questions show that you&rsquo;ve really taken notice, formed an understanding and can now engage in a two-way discussion. Let them finish Pretty self-explanatory. Don&rsquo;t interrupt someone when they&rsquo;re speaking &ndash; for all you know, they could be about to explain whatever it is you&rsquo;re going to comment on. And again &ndash; manners, right? My team specialise in sales recruitment; sales is a profession whose success could almost be said to hinge on listening skills so, as you can imagine, we spend a lot of time trying to identify this very skill at interview stage. When we meet each candidate, we use various techniques to gauge their listening ability &ndash; and the fact is, those who possess them have a higher success rate when it comes to job hunting. How would you go about identifying listening skills, and do you consider them to be particularly useful in your own line of work?

Listen Up: 3 ways to improve your listening skills in the business world

KPIs, KPIs, KPIs. Is there any other aspect of business operations so widely spoken about, furthermore contested? It&rsquo;s a divisive subject in the business community &ndash; where some live by them, others dispute their place altogether; some employ but largely ignore them, either way.
Whether you utilise them day-to-date or oppose them entirely, if you work in the corporate world, you&rsquo;ve come across KPIs at some point.
The fact is, the reason they&rsquo;re so highly contested is that KPIs are seldom implemented effectively, or used properly.
It&rsquo;s not about the &lsquo;numbers game&rsquo; &ndash; it&rsquo;s about business efficiency.
Let&rsquo;s stop thinking about KPIs as targets, first off. There&rsquo;s a clear distinction between the two.
The definition of a KPI is, as it says on the tin, a key performance indicator &ndash; a figure which is (or should be) derived from information your business is providing you. KPIs should be used to evaluate the activity a business needs to undertake in order to achieve its targets &ndash; not as a target in and of themselves.
Get it?
Let&rsquo;s put it into real terms.
Your business currently has 10 sales execs. The team&rsquo;s target is to generate &pound;100,000 in revenue each month, so each individual&rsquo;s target is &pound;10,000. Currently, each person is achieving &pound;8,000 per month; upon drilling down into their activity, you find that they&rsquo;re each making 8 phone calls per month.
What can you take from this?
Your business is indicating that your team&rsquo;s activity needs to increase in order to reach target, and is telling you, hypothetically, how much it needs to increase by.
Analyse these tricky figures and you&rsquo;ll find it makes sense that, were they each to make 10 phone calls per month, everyone would hit that &pound;10K, no problem. But here&rsquo;s the thing &ndash; there&rsquo;s no need to now storm onto the sales floor and inform the team that they had all better hit those 10 calls, or else. Not in that fashion, anyway. You&rsquo;re not setting this as a target: your business is doing it for you.
It&rsquo;s a KPI, not a target. See?
KPIs should be in place to motivate, not condemn.
Information is king, or so they say, and it&rsquo;s our job as leaders to use it to our advantage. Particularly in sales and marketing, numbers do play a big part in the performance sense &ndash; from calls made to appointments booked, website clicks to conversion rates, your team is constantly running through figures in their mind.
Adding a panel of KPIs into that mix, specifically when posing them as targets/must-hits, definitely creates potential for the pot to boil over from time to time. However, if you were to go to your team and say, &ldquo;Hey, we&rsquo;ve collated some really interesting info here which we think is going to help you do your job better/more efficiently, want to take a look?&rdquo;, any employee worth his/her salt will be clambering to see your notes.
Keep targets and KPIs separate; monitor them both as equals.
Your KPIs should be based on fact and fact alone.
Here at Certus we get to know our clients well, and I&rsquo;d be lying if I said we don&rsquo;t sometimes have to do a little &ndash; err &ndash; re-education, shall we say. Often, businesses blindly set their KPIs based on industry standards or what their competition appears to be doing which, fundamentally, doesn&rsquo;t make sense. Just because Oracle&rsquo;s techs have to sit four appointments per day, doesn&rsquo;t mean that your hyper-growth, disruptive SaaS start-up should be doing the same.
In fact, we need to move away from this idea of &lsquo;setting&rsquo; KPIs altogether &ndash; I reiterate, your business sets them itself. Monitor activity, productivity, operations, all aspects of your business, over time to understand what your KPIs are and where they should sit in terms of activity. Don&rsquo;t pull numbers out of the air and &lsquo;set&rsquo; KPIs based on what you think you&nbsp;should&nbsp;be doing &ndash; base them on what you&nbsp;are&nbsp;doing, and the improvements that you want to make.
Remember, more doesn&rsquo;t always equal more.
Numbers and humans behave in very different ways. When a calculator does a complex mathematical equation, it doesn&rsquo;t need to take into account that, maybe, number 3 is recovering from a bout of the flu, or that number 4 is off on holiday for two weeks this month.
So, when you take a look at your figures and see that 25 calls equals 1 appointment, don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s as simple as commanding your team to make 50, and expecting them to achieve 2 appointments as such. It just doesn&rsquo;t work that way.
I&rsquo;m not saying that we as leaders shouldn&rsquo;t always strive for excellence and improvement &ndash; but, alas, we are humans managing humans. And that needs to be at the forefront of our approach, always.
We shouldn&rsquo;t be setting KPIs, we should be running our businesses based on the information it provides us &ndash; looking at them as the dataset they are, rather than another number to hold over our teams&rsquo; heads.
As ever, love to hear your opinions &ndash; what&rsquo;s your approach to KPIs, and are you making the most of them across your business?

KPI's or Core Activities? Love them either way!

Any business leader will know that sometimes, although all lights were green at interview stage, an employee just doesn&rsquo;t perform as well as you&rsquo;d expected. Whilst your first instinct is, quite rightly, to get to the bottom of understanding&nbsp;why&nbsp;they&rsquo;re underperforming (is it a capability issue? Time management perhaps?), it&rsquo;s our job as managers to be equally accountable. Try turning the question inwards: instead of managing underperformance, should we instead be trying to drive for overperformance? Ask yourself these questions: Have I set proper expectations, and does this person know that they&rsquo;re underperforming?&nbsp;As a leader, it&rsquo;s your job to let employees know where the goal posts stand and give them something to aim for. In setting out the expectations clearly, succinctly and without question, you&rsquo;re driving that person towards that goal &ndash; so make sure you&rsquo;ve done your bit. An employee who doesn&rsquo;t know exactly what&rsquo;s expected of them can often become unsure in their actions, leading to underperformance. Worse yet, if they&rsquo;re unaware that they are in fact underperforming, they may be blindsided when you eventually bring it up. Is this individual motivated to complete their work as best they can?&nbsp;Whether your employee is intrinsically or extrinsically motivated, it&rsquo;s your job to understand their drivers and work them in a way which keeps them engaged. If, for instance, you know that someone is driven by the prospect of being promoted rather than financially, don&rsquo;t offer them a cash bonus for overperforming. If one individual is simply driven by the prospect of earning more money, don&rsquo;t ply them with offers for paid training and education as an incentive. Your job as manager is to achieve results by ensuring each member of staff is getting what they need &ndash; it takes time and care to truly understand, but the performance of your team could depend on it. Have I provided them with the tools and resources to be successful in this role?&nbsp;We&rsquo;re talking about the right tech systems and whatnot, sure, but also training, education and coaching, too. There are pieces of software on the market which automate certain processes and can save an unbelievable amount of time; also, there are tricks of the trade which only you know, and imparting these might be the key to that overperformance we&rsquo;re aiming for. Tools and resources &ndash; both tangible and intangible &ndash; fall on you, so take stock. Could they be doing more if there was less to do; essentially, is this workload manageable for one person alone? Sometimes underperformance can be a result of simply too large a workload. Ask yourself whether you&rsquo;ve set them up for success or failure, based on how much work they are personally responsible for. Could an external investment &ndash; be it into one of the time-saving tools we mentioned above, or even a member of support staff for example &ndash; drive this individual to absolutely smash their goals? Overall, let&rsquo;s stop talking about managing underperformance for a while &ndash; let&rsquo;s talk about driving overperformance instead. Consider it a matter of proactivity; taking the bull by the horns and taking accountability. Instead of asking yourself why this person is not performing, ask yourself the question: what could I as a leader be doing more of, better or differently to drive overperformance? Here at Certus, we go further than just finding you the perfect candidate and managing the recruitment process for you. Our service offering has been diversifying over a number of years now to include genuine consultation with regards to everything people-related &ndash; be it management help, onboarding, succession planning and more. We don&rsquo;t just make hires &ndash; we build teams. Teams which overperform. We&rsquo;d love to talk about how. Get in touch today on 0204 538 8222.

Managing Under-Performance or Driving Over-Performance?

​It&rsquo;s no secret that modern day life can be stressful. Amongst the majority of us there is often a persistent feeling of being weighed down by jobs that never feel fully done from answering endless emails to picking up the kids, to food shopping.
This feeling is referred to in the corporate world as a &ldquo;perennial time-scarcity problem.&rdquo; This time famine is a new, current day phenomenon and has been growing ferociously amongst executives all over the world; with white collar working parents affected the most acutely.
By contrast, leisure time has actually been slowly increasing since the 1960's and we are regularly told that new technology is one of the reasons this has happened. Designed to make our lives easier, technology should be increasing our leisure time, right? We now have dishwashers, washing machines and microwaves to assist with household chores; plus an app for everything from collecting your dry cleaning to delivering recipes and ingredients to your door.
So with new technology helping to increase the number of free hours we have in a day, why do we feel like we still never have enough? There are two factors at work here; how we now perceive our time and our expectations of what we should be doing with it and secondly, technology actually doing the opposite and eating up all our free time.&nbsp;
Ever since the industrial revolution used a clock to measure output, our days are financially quantifiable and this creates a need to use them profitability. I&rsquo;m sure your manager is always talking about working &ldquo;smart&rdquo; and using the hours in your day effectively to increase results. T his is only intensified in bigger, richer cities where the wages are higher, the cost of living is dramatically rising and this in turn, increases the value of people&rsquo;s time. According to a recent Gallup poll, the more well-off you are the more time poor you feel.
So it makes sense that the more you are paid for work, the more you tend to work because working becomes a more profitable use of time. Meaning those leisure hours are far and few between; and the few you do have become more stressful as you feel compelled to use it wisely to ensure that it is as worthwhile as working.
Secondly, fuelled by technology such as smart phones, social media and email, we have become a society of instant gratification which creates a desperate urgency to make every moment count. The expectations on us, and us on others, to respond instantly to questions and demands from messages, means we are constantly switched on and this has a huge impact on our down time.
Gone are the days of long lunches that used to be enjoyed by executives on the golf course as we grab a sandwich and trawl through endless emails hunched over a laptop at our desks.
This technology eats into our leisure time by creating an assumption from managers that we should be constantly available on our work phones during evenings, weekends and holidays. The demands of full time modern working means we don&rsquo;t get to switch off anymore. This is impacting our health and well-being without us even realising it.&nbsp;
Psychologists have recently studied the link between stressing over a deficit in time and lower well-being, anxiety and insomnia. In a series of surveys carried out by the University of British Columbia, it was found that those who pay for chores, are happier and have a higher life satisfaction. This allows for more leisure time and means less time doing a &ldquo;second shift&rdquo; of household chores at the weekend and in the evenings.
More recently greater feelings of job insecurity and concern about competition due to slow economic growth, the rising costs of living and living longer are all making people more nervous about career prospects than they used to be. This means we feel under pressure to plug more hours into future security in the here and now.
It is undeniable that an increasing number of people are trading leisure time for work because of the gains of working and the costs of not, are higher than ever. Although, let&rsquo;s not forget that some people put in long hours because they enjoy their job and the prestige and rewards that come with it.
Being &ldquo;time poor&rdquo; is on the rise, especially for the better-off, better educated parents of this world. It has become expensive to stop work, even for a short period of time for example maternity leave, and this has led to less time for play and a harried leisure class.

Is modern working making us all "time poor"?

​In an ideal world, businesses want to hire people that encompass the perfect balance of attitude and skill.
Having the right skill set is vital for candidates to hit the ground running and minimise loss from a new hire. But when collaborating with a team and working with clients, attitude and more importantly, social skills have to be the right fit. The right attitude means employees are more motivated and easily adaptable to learning new skills at a faster rate.
However, improving attitude is often more of a challenge than up-skilling. This difficulty lieswithintrying to change a person&rsquo;s behaviour and traits, which are often ingrained over the course of their life. This can be hard to alter because it often relies on the person in questionbeingopen to changing themselves.
Donna Wells, CEO of online trading platform Mindflash stated that any skill can be trained, but its personality and temperament which are the deciding factors in how this person will fit into your team and perform to your customers and clients.
When it boils down to it, employers are ultimately more attracted to attitude rather than the qualifications you have on paper. Companies and clients will look for people who are going to fit in with their culture, values and environment. Hire people with the wrong attitude and they could clash with the culture at your workplace, disrupting teamwork and office environment as well as the overall performance of other employees.
Former Red Arrows pilot and Executive Officer Justin Hughes, says effective leadership is the key to unlocking ahigh performanceculture. Now MD of consultancy Mission Excellence, Hughes claims good management has more in common with precision flying than people might think! He argues that to be a fighter pilot, you are required to work in an extreme version of a cross-functional matrix team with a line management structure. It is fast paced and often ambiguous with demanding deadlines, imperfect information and an element of risk.
Hughes believes if you take away the military and flying aspects, this is what businesses face day to day. He claims high-performance teams such as New Zealand&rsquo;s All Blacks rugby team, have primacy of attitude over skills; &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not just about being the best in the world you have to have the right attitude as well.&rdquo; You will find people who are good at things such as decision making and compromise but the important thing and point of difference will be the team dynamic and the realisation that some are always going to be better at certain things than others, forexamplethere are those who will naturally take to leadership and whereas others are more team players. But give someone the right environment and the right opportunities within that environment no matter what position they are in, and it will help them on their way.
Let&rsquo;s also not forget hiring for attitude opens up a wider pool of candidates. &lsquo;Hire for attitude, train for skills&rsquo; has become the catchphrase recently for recruitment. Despite this, lots of businesses across the globe say that they&rsquo;re facing a critical shortage of appropriately skilled entry-level workers andentry levelvacancies are going unfilled because of the skills gap.
Apparently, the number one issue American businesses face when looking to recruit for entry-level staff is an inability to communicate in a professional manner. This basic inability to express themselves and communicate across a variety of stakeholders is going to be severelyoff putting.
However, hiring solely for attitude is not always the best route if the candidate does notpossesthe ability to learn technical skills required for a role. Plus teaching said skills to a proficient level is an expensive andtime consumingprocess and can take months, if not years.
Making the decision to hire can sometimes be a tough call, but looking to your top performers for attitudes/personality traits and seeking candidates who show signs of similar characteristics can provide a solid benchmark for recruiting. However, be careful not to discriminate indirectly by having a lack of diversity within a company, as this could have a detrimental effect on your company&rsquo;scompetiveness.

The age old question: should you hire for skills or attitude?

Staff turnover is a concept all leaders, HR teams and business owners have to contend with. It&rsquo;s a term often used interchangeably with employee attrition, churn, and many others, all of which effectively pose the same question: how many people are leaving your business, and how often do they come and go?
Hiring costs money, so it follows that having an overview of the things which affect how long people stick around for is crucial to long-term, sustainable growth. As business leaders, when we hire a person, we&rsquo;re investing in them &ndash; be that time spent throughout the hiring process, costs associated with training, equipment and the like, and even the emotional investment which comes with making a key hire, one you believe could make a real difference to your company. Whilst attrition happens naturally in a lot of cases &ndash; retirements, redundancies, a friendly parting of ways even &ndash; there are things we can do to help. And the key is to first understand what might be causing people to leave.
Here are some key areas which may be contributing to a high staff turnover in your business, along with what you can do to improve them.
Hiring Process
A huge aspect of employee turnover comes down to simply hiring the right people! If you&rsquo;re having employees come on board and leave before their time, or certainly sooner than you&rsquo;d expected or hoped, it&rsquo;s time to look at your recruitment process and ask questions as to where the disconnect is happening. Are you taking the time to find out all you need to know about each individual, from experience and suitability to cultural fit? Are you giving a true representation of what it&rsquo;s like to work for you? Are you staying true to the job you&rsquo;ve outlined for this person and the responsibilities it entails? Hire the right people to begin with, and your turnover rate will naturally reduce.
Onboarding
Issues with onboarding usually happen when an unrealistic expectations are set for the role during the interview process, and/or a lack of preparation on the business&rsquo; part for that all-important start date. Whilst this alone may not affect whether your new employees stay or leave, what it does do is set a precedent &ndash; so it&rsquo;s important to get right. Have your onboarding process nailed down, including goals set, timelines built and expectations managed, then keep in constant contact for feedback throughout. This way, you&rsquo;ll be able to potentially see and then mitigate any issues before they lead to an employee leaving the company prematurely. Simply put: start as you mean to go on.
Workplace Factors
There are occasions when you&rsquo;re going to hire someone and they just won&rsquo;t be a fit &ndash; it&rsquo;s unfortunate, but inevitable, given that company culture is tricky to both identify and portray at interview. That being said, there are definite workplace factors you&nbsp;do&nbsp;have control over, and they can affect turnover massively. Such things include work-life balance; it&rsquo;s becoming evermore important, as is championing mental health. Showing you care about your employees&rsquo; wellbeing will go a long way to garnering their loyalty. On top of this, pay attention to employee relations internally, and make sure there&rsquo;s no toxicity growing amongst individuals or teams. Cultivate a positive, healthy workplace, and don&rsquo;t be surprised when employees stick around as a result.
Overall, staff turnover is inevitable &ndash; but starting off on the right foot can go a long way to improving retention further down the line. We help companies build workforce strategies which start from the initial hire, reaching through the onboarding process and beyond, to reduce turnover and make your business an employer of choice. To talk more about how, get in touch.

Staff Turnover: It Starts at the Interview!

​What does &ldquo;decision making&rdquo; mean to you? It sounds simple, I know. But as one of the most important indicators of a future leader, and certainly an attribute to seek in current management, it&rsquo;s something which doesn&rsquo;t always get the investigation it needs at interview stage. When you&rsquo;re looking to make a hire into a position of responsibility, you need to know that this person is not only able but also willing to make key decisions well; and simply saying they&rsquo;re able to isn&rsquo;t going to cut it. Just because their current job requires it, doesn&rsquo;t mean they&rsquo;re doing it well. So, what attributes should you look for at interview stage which spell real decision making capabilities? Initiative Whilst you want somebody to refer to the chain of command when necessary and seek advice when necessary, initiative is a hugely beneficial attribute in someone who&rsquo;s going to be responsible for many moving parts &ndash; the whole operation can&rsquo;t fall down based on one task pending. A decision maker utilises the tools and knowledge at their disposal to define and take the best course of action known to them at that moment. Whilst they&rsquo;re able to hold their hands up and ask for help when they need it, equally they know how and when to make the call themselves. Further to this, a decision maker will stand by that decision and see it through, despite any fall out or consequences. They&rsquo;re able how they got there and why; their decisions, right or wrong, will be well thought out and rational &ndash; even if not the right one. Hey, nobody&rsquo;s perfect. Selflessness A decision maker should be able to put their own ego, interests and gains aside to make the decision which most benefits the company and team &ndash; end of. Call it what you like &ndash; altruistic, magnanimous, or other; to make a decision is one thing, but to make it for the right reasons another entirely. You want to hire the people who truly place the company&rsquo;s best interests at heart and base their thinking on that line, rather than simply progressing their own career, earnings, status or otherwise. A great decision maker is one who considers ALL angles, not just those that benefit themselves. Problem solving Thankfully, this one is a trait we can pretty well test and probe for at interview. Decisions should be made with a view to solving a problem, or moving things forward, rather than just masking over issues or achieving empty goals &ndash; ever heard the phrase &ldquo;busy doing nothing&rdquo;? A decision maker is also a problem solver &ndash; someone who sees through the tasks which need completing, all the way to the ultimate resolution and achievement of the job in hand. They&rsquo;re able to problem solve and make calculated, well thought out choices based on what they know. ---- Pushing or hiring someone into a position which requires them to make business-critical decisions on a daily basis isn&rsquo;t something to be taken lightly; you need to be sure that they&rsquo;re not only capable, but that they share your business&rsquo; goals and motivations, too. We all make decisions, both conscious and subconscious, hundreds of times every day &ndash; from what&rsquo;s for lunch to how much effort we&rsquo;re putting in, how we communicate to the attitude we turn up to work with &ndash; but when it comes to your organisation, ensuring you have somebody who&rsquo;s equipped to take your business to the next level, whether now or in future, couldn&rsquo;t be more vital. As recruiters, we make decisions day in, day out on the people we interview &ndash; and you can rest assured that if decision making skills are what you need, we won&rsquo;t make the call until we&rsquo;re certain they&rsquo;ve got them. Certus specialises in building sales, marketing and IT teams from the ground up, with each of our teams possessing their own &lsquo;sweet spot&rsquo; in terms of what and who they know best. If you&rsquo;d like to talk through the benefits of having a dedicated team aiding in your middle or senior management hiring plans, get in touch today. We love a chat, and we certainly know a thing or two about sniffing out a great decision maker!

How to Hire a True Leader

​One of the main reasons companies choose to employ the services of a recruitment partner such as us is the pre-qualification process which candidates experience; it&rsquo;s our job to get to know your potential employees, to get to the bottom of any gaps on their CV, really assess their skills and experience, and ultimately ensure that their goals and aspirations level with those of your business. And a big part of what we do involves defining just why they&rsquo;re looking to leave their current position &ndash; it&rsquo;s an absolutely imperative part of the recruitment process regardless of level, sector, job title and role. From the weird, to the understandable, to the downright wonderfully random, we hear every manner of &lsquo;reason for leaving&rsquo; in this job. But, here&rsquo;s a little secret: you, the employer, may not get the full story. No one wants to burn bridges, but unfortunately sometimes your place of work just isn&rsquo;t the ticket for them. Here are a few common reasons people leave their jobs &ndash; and it might not be why you think. Lack of recognition In sales or marketing based jobs, for instance &ndash; jobs where the work &lsquo;Employee A&rsquo; puts in can be clearly turned into numbers and figures on a spreadsheet &ndash; it&rsquo;s easy to recognise and reward positive results and a job well done. However, in what we might call &lsquo;back office&rsquo; jobs, it&rsquo;s not necessarily the case. For &lsquo;Employee B&rsquo;, who works in a job role undoubtedly as important as those at the forefront albeit not necessarily under a performance-based system, it&rsquo;s easy to feel somewhat &lsquo;left behind&rsquo;. Whilst their job impacts the business wholly, it&rsquo;s not uncommon for businesses to forget that these employees too need to be incentivised, recognised and rewarded for the hard work they put in. Otherwise, you risk losing them to a competitor or somewhere which promises to do exactly those things. Progression &ndash; or a lack thereof Whatever the size and function of your organisation, it&rsquo;s important for employees to be able to find something to be reaching for &ndash; and if they don&rsquo;t, they may leave, period. If you&rsquo;re a small organisation looking to grow, it&rsquo;s important to instil your staff with the company&rsquo;s vision for the future; mostly, they want to know how they can be a part of that, and what it means for their career progression. As a larger business, you walk the edge of a knife &ndash; wanting to ensure employees know that the potential to progress is there, but imparting confidence that whilst there&rsquo;s healthy competition for that promotion, everyone&rsquo;s in for a shot at progressing in some way, shape or form. Those unable to understand the route to further their career within their current organisation are oftentimes those who come through our doors; as a manager/decision maker within the business who&rsquo;s likely experienced internal progression first-hand, it&rsquo;s all well and good that you yourself know the progression is in fact there. Illustrating that to your employees is another matter entirely. Their next move is horizontal, not vertical A graduate secures their first role out of university; it&rsquo;s a graduate sales scheme, and they do really well. Everyone&rsquo;s happy &ndash; they with their job, and their manager with their performance. A year in, and that same graduate has been talking to their friend in the accounting team; they&rsquo;ve realised that they share a lot of skills, and that the career path offers a lot of what they&rsquo;re after long-term. However, when they approach their boss about a potential move, they&rsquo;re discouraged; they&rsquo;re doing so well in sales! Why would they want to change job roles entirely? If it ain&rsquo;t broke, don&rsquo;t fix it, right? It&rsquo;s not unusual for people to want, at some point, to make a horizontal career move &ndash; that is, changing job roles altogether, taking a side or sometimes even a backwards step in order to diversify their experience and try something new. If an employee has been with a business for a while or has only worked within one division, it can lead to them feeling pigeonholed and limited to doing only that; they feel as though they&rsquo;ll always be &lsquo;that sales guy/gal&rsquo; whilst working here. And from here, it&rsquo;s just a short hop, skip and jump onto the job market. ---- There&rsquo;s no right or wrong reason for someone to wish to seek pastures new &ndash; and there&rsquo;s only so much we as employers can do to retain staff beyond staying competitive and creating a positive, rewarding workspace. Being aware of the reasoning behind their seeking opportunities elsewhere can not only provide well-needed feedback for your organisation, but in some situations could allow you to divert those thinking about leaving and improve company turnover. In such a competitive employment marketplace, these are just a few of many reasons candidates choose to leave their current employers. Rest assured, each candidate you interview from us at Certus will have been fully pre-qualified to determine everything you need to know; we&rsquo;ll know it&rsquo;s a good fit before you do. Get in touch to hear more about the in-depth recruitment model we operate here at Certus Recruitment Group.

Why employees leave - it's not money!

​Congratulations! We&rsquo;ve guided you through what was probably an arduous and at the very least time-consuming interview process, to find ourselves with a job offer on the table at the end of it &ndash; this is the end goal, in everything that we do. So, what now? You&rsquo;ve done the hard part and made it to the pot of gold, but there&rsquo;s work to be done still. As a recruitment partner, our success essentially depends entirely on yours; as such, we want you to be sure that this move is the right one. What should you be asking at this stage? Questions to ask yourself What are my non-negotiables? It&rsquo;s important to keep your head in the game here and not get swept away in the flattery of having been offered a job. What are the things which you wrote down, mentally or physically, as must-haves at the beginning of this process? And have they been included? Whilst I&rsquo;m by no means saying that you shouldn&rsquo;t celebrate getting the offer, stay focused on what you need to see within it. Salary is the obvious one, but think about flexibility, budget, benefits, etc&hellip; For instance &ndash; if you&rsquo;ve worked out a plan of action for your first year in the new role, have agreed said plan with the employer you&rsquo;re joining, but the budget set out for you in writing doesn&rsquo;t quite cut the mustard, talk about it &ndash; you need to know you&rsquo;re going to be helped and supported, not handed obstacles on day one. Or, if your work-from-home Fridays are absolutely imperative, make sure it&rsquo;s in writing. Have I met everyone I need to, to be sure I can do this job? It&rsquo;s important, especially at a more senior level, to meet as many people within the company you&rsquo;ll be joining as possible &ndash; not just the other board members or senior leaders, but perhaps the team you&rsquo;ll be inheriting too, those you&rsquo;ll be managing, the colleagues you&rsquo;ll have day-to-day dealings with. Particularly when we&rsquo;re interviewing at an executive level, this is a given; but, still, make a list in your mind of those whose own jobs you&rsquo;ll be impacting with your acceptance of the offer, and decide if there&rsquo;s anyone else you had ought to meet. This can also help mitigate any teething problems when you start, and ultimately make you feel more at home on day one. Do I know everything I need to about the company? Not just what they do, but their future, their past and what&rsquo;s coming next. Go beyond just hearing what your interviewers have told you &ndash; check news articles, financial reports, share prices. Do your due diligence on LinkedIn to raise any red flags on staff longevity and turnover; make sure you understand where the business is headed. Particularly at a senior level, you should be looking at this as a long-term opportunity &ndash; any nasty surprises when it comes to company instability or market volatility need to factor into your decision making when considering any offer. Research, research, research. Questions to ask your new employer What are your expectations of me? You&rsquo;ve taken this job on the basis of &lsquo;taking the company to the next level&rsquo; or &lsquo;seeing us through this period of explosive growth&rsquo;. But, what does that actually look like? This question can be left as wide or narrow as you need it to be, but one thing is for sure &ndash; you need to know what your new company is expecting you to achieve, how they&rsquo;re expecting you to operate and what you&rsquo;re expected to do, day to day. From simple, logistical expectations such as, &ldquo;When do you expect me to be physically in the office?&rdquo; to actual targets like, &ldquo;What are our year-one measurables?&rdquo;, it couldn&rsquo;t be more important to know, before accepting this offer, that you&rsquo;re on the same level from a practicality/operational perspective. And what they want you to achieve &ndash; short, medium and long term &ndash; should be agreed upon before the first day on the job. What does my full compensation package entail? Salary is one thing, compensation another entirely. Is everything you discussed throughout the interview process detailed in writing in your offer of employment? Share options, car allowances and any other manner of compensation matter in a different way when we&rsquo;re working at a senior level, period. Make sure that all of these things are ironed out and clearly outlined, in writing, before accepting any job offer. It&rsquo;s much easier to negotiate beforehand than once everyone&rsquo;s hand has been shaken. If you&rsquo;re hoping to retire here &ndash; which, at an executive or board level, wouldn&rsquo;t be unusual &ndash; you need to know that the package you&rsquo;re receiving can get you there. What other questions do you find key to confidently and happily accepting an offer of employment? We operate differently here at Certus Recruitment Group; when you truly put your candidates&rsquo; best interests first, the results speak for themselves. That&rsquo;s why so many of our candidates are now clients for whom we happily recruit. We&rsquo;re consultants, not salespeople; get in touch to hear more about our senior and executive level positions across London and the UK.

5 Questions to Ask Before Accepting an Executive Job Offer

Take a second to ponder how many times throughout your professional life you&rsquo;ve heard the phrase, &ldquo;first impressions count&rdquo;. As far as English-speaking colloquialisms go, I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d be wrong to say it&rsquo;s up there as one of the most widely-known and moreover universally respected. But why is that all-important first impression so very crucial? Why is it that we form snap opinions of a person &ndash; and then only very reluctantly turn them around, if it happened that we were wrong? In this two-part series we&rsquo;re going to be exploring the psychology behind first impressions, why we humans have the tendency to judge so quickly and, most importantly, what you can do to ensure yours is as positive as can be. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t get a second chance to make a first impression.&rdquo; You may have heard, that it takes merely 7 seconds to make your first impression &ndash; that&rsquo;s 7 seconds to sell yourself and display a transparent, genuine projection of who you are. What you may not know is that, 7 seconds aside, it takes only one-tenth of a second for our deep subconscious to make that judgement. Do we even stand a chance? What we want to know is why it happens altogether. Why is it that we can seemingly decide within a matter of split-seconds what we think of the person stood in front of us? (With that said, research shows that we even make first impression judgements based on still photos too &ndash; but that&rsquo;s a whole other kettle of fish we need not get into today&hellip;) The answer is simple: it&rsquo;s in our DNA. &ldquo;First impressions are the most lasting.&rdquo; Think back &ndash; way back &ndash; when people were first exploring the planet, perhaps coming upon new people for the first time. Back then, a first impression didn&rsquo;t mean the difference between getting the job or not; first impressions were inextricably linked to whether you were going to SURVIVE or not. Evolution did away with many unnecessary or now-redundant skills and senses of ours, but not the first impression. We&rsquo;re designed to judge a face based on a few key details, quickly &ndash; the main, most important of those things being trust. And we simply can&rsquo;t help doing so. What else do we look for subconsciously? Fascinatingly and moreover unbeknownst to us, when we see a face for the first time our mind flips through troves of memories to identify whether this face is familiar to us &ndash; it could be that it shares features with an aunty or old friend, generating feelings of warmth, love and trustworthiness; equally, this particular face could share fundamental similarities with that of an estranged ex-partner or old boss. You see how things can go downhill, fast. Other factors include gender, race and, interestingly, attractiveness &ndash; I suppose it makes sense that, once upon a time, survival meant picking a mate. Whilst we all know fundamentally that you can&rsquo;t judge a book by its cover, our innate, human instinct does often take the reins on this one. So, what does this mean in a professional setting? Interviews can be daunting enough without all of this uncontrollable malarkey to think about &ndash; so we reiterate to our candidates day in, day out, the importance of doing your bit to protect that all-important first impression. We might not be able to stop evolution, but we can certainly help ourselves along the way. Think posture. Tone of voice. Eye contact, expression&hellip; The list goes on. All of these things go a long way to creating a genuine, positive and &ndash; I hate to use the word, but &ndash; generally GOOD first impression. Check back in for tomorrow's article, where I&rsquo;ll be spilling the tea on what 20+ years of recruitment experience teaches you about first impressions &ndash; what to do, what not under any circumstances to do, and everything in between.

First Impressions: it’s in our DNA (Part 1)

​Ah, job titles. In today&rsquo;s world of LinkedIn profiles, connection invites and online networking, your job title says a lot about you&hellip; Or does it? It&rsquo;s no secret that with the advent of social media, us professional folk have sometimes been known to&hellip; Well, inflate certain aspects of our positions, especially when it comes to that all-important job title. As recruiters we spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, which means we sometimes share a giggle at job titles from the weird to the wonderful; from the Director of A Very Vague Department to the Manager of Insignificant Office Materials and everything in between, it&rsquo;s safe to say one thing: You can&rsquo;t judge a job by its title. On a serious note, it&rsquo;s something we really have to reiterate as recruiters &ndash; basing your feelings about a potential new role on its job title alone can be a dangerous game, one which may leave you in the lurch long-term. Let&rsquo;s put this in real terms. I&rsquo;m the Sales Director here at Certus Recruitment Group &ndash; what that means is, I hold managerial responsibilities from hiring, conducting one-to-ones and performance reviews, disciplinaries; I carry a personal revenue target along with overall responsibility for the P&amp;L of the business here in London; my day is spent training, managing and of course staying &lsquo;hands on&rsquo; &ndash; selling. I&rsquo;m involved in devising our business strategy, goal setting, client relations, account management&hellip; Essentially, I touch upon all aspects of managing this business, inside and out, and report directly to our CEO. That&rsquo;s why my job title is Sales Director. Conversely, I once recruited for an events software business who were looking to hire a &lsquo;Sales Director&rsquo;&hellip; Whose sole job it was to cold call, visit clients and sell a SaaS platform. The role carried a solid mid-level salary with great benefits and commission, but it certainly couldn&rsquo;t be called what most of us would a classic &lsquo;Sales Director&rsquo; position. With different roles carrying the same job title but a huge difference in level and responsibility, it&rsquo;s so important as a job seeker not to write any positions off based on that title alone. With the classic org chart for many industries diversifying, it&rsquo;s not as simple as it used to be to identify a &lsquo;step up&rsquo; in role by its name alone; put simply, different job titles mean entirely different things, for different companies. Job adverts online are notorious for often being badly written, brief or simply unhelpful; it&rsquo;s never been more important to really delve into the details. If the salary is thereabouts, the duties match your current role or, better yet, look to be somewhat of a step up and ultimately you like the sound of the role &ndash; but the job title sounds too junior? Reserve judgement and get the proper details. Whether applying through a recruiter like us or to the employer directly, ask as many questions as you can when it comes to the nitty-gritty of each job. A ton of factors are in play when it comes to officially choosing a job title &ndash; from the size and scope of the company itself to internal politics and everything that happens up to a position becoming live, there&rsquo;s lots going on behind the scenes. I&rsquo;ve met Business Development Managers who carry the weight of the company on their shoulders; I&rsquo;ve met Sales Managers who conduct their business solely over the phone, from self-generated leads. I&rsquo;ve met Marketing Execs with more widespread experience than some Marketing Directors who earn three times their salary, and I&rsquo;ve met company Directors who hold absolutely zero authority over company goings-on, financials or otherwise. As a job seeker you should be judging each job based on what it is you&rsquo;re looking for &ndash; more responsibility, or different ones? A larger financial target? More budget to play with, a bigger team to manage, more territory to look after? Or does the move come down to reasons which don&rsquo;t denote a step forward in your career &ndash; remember, a sideways step isn&rsquo;t a bad thing to take, if the company itself offer opportunity to progress in the future. Part of our job as a specialist recruitment company is to understand the ins and outs of every role we try to fill, not to mention the clients we represent; it&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m confident that when one of my consultants talk to you about a role, they won&rsquo;t do so unless they know it&rsquo;s a good fit &ndash; regardless of what it might be called. Whatever it is you&rsquo;re looking for, it could go by many names. Like I said &ndash; don&rsquo;t judge a job by its title.

Don’t judge a role by its job title

When I first started working in recruitment, we received our applicants via fax machine. There you go &ndash; I&rsquo;ve said it and I&rsquo;m not ashamed. To say we&rsquo;ve moved on since &lsquo;those days&rsquo; would be an understatement &ndash; not only us as a people, but the way we communicate, do business and recruit. And, as 2019 draws to an end, we&rsquo;re readying ourselves for an exciting but somewhat intimidating influx to the job-seeking marketplace: Generation Z. Let&rsquo;s go through the basics here: Gen Y aka &lsquo;Millennials&rsquo;: grew up with technology, developing as they did; wasn&rsquo;t attached to a mobile phone until the age of perhaps 12 or 13; raised by hands-on &lsquo;Boomers&rsquo;; born (roughly) between 1981 and 1996. Gen Z aka &lsquo;Digital Natives&rsquo;: unthinkably connected to technology and social media (think Instagram and Snapchat); grew up with iPad in hand; largely considered to be the most educated generation yet; born between the years of 1996 and 2010, or thereabouts. As with anything, knowing your target is crucial to success. The need-to-knows for recruiting Gen Z. They&rsquo;re known as &lsquo;digital natives&rsquo; for a reason; this contingent of the population is particularly linked to technology, but not as you may know it. Studies show that, unlike Gen Y before them, Gen Z don&rsquo;t take as much notice of LinkedIn and Facebook &ndash; if any at all. These guys are all about the apps, so connecting with them on &lsquo;their level&rsquo; is key; according to some, even emails are outdated. It&rsquo;s also important remember that this generation has essentially lived their whole lives with a mobile phone &ndash; quick and constant communication is vital to gaining and moreover keeping their attention. As a business, you need to ensure that tech is at the forefront of your hiring strategy &ndash; whether that be utilizing instant messaging services for prompt responses, implementing AI/&rsquo;chat bots&rsquo; to garner that initial contact or simply ensuring your business demonstrates cutting-edge tech tools and resources for their employees. We also know that Gen Z are very visual; that bland, black-and-white, text-only advert on a job board (which, apparently, they won&rsquo;t be using anyway) won&rsquo;t cut it with these guys. Use videos to market your business and give them true insight into who they&rsquo;d be working for; curate exciting, eye-catching marketing materials to showcase the kind of business they&rsquo;ll be joining. Compared to the purported 12-second attention span of Millennials, the &lsquo;iGeneration&rsquo; top out at just 8 seconds &ndash; so you&rsquo;ll need to be quick, and persistent. And what do they value above all else? Unlike Millennials, who were brought up by us Baby Boomers seemingly reveling in our economic fortune (hmm), Gen Z have lived through some of the toughest recessions to date &ndash; so, it&rsquo;s no wonder that every study we could find shows that above all they&rsquo;re after job security and stability. Generation Z may have experienced their parents, loved ones, close friends or otherwise losing their jobs and the subsequent struggles which came from it; at the very least, those entering the job market now have learned about it throughout their extensive education. It follows that they want to join businesses who offer them real security &ndash; unlike Gen Y who, as we very well know, are more likely to throw caution to the wind, set up for themselves and go about &lsquo;disrupting&rsquo; their chosen market. Gen Z seem to value authenticity and integrity most of all; it&rsquo;s no secret that in procuring new clients we all rely more and more on word of mouth, referrals and business won on the back of great reviews. When it comes to shopping (which, interestingly, they don&rsquo;t do a lot of online) this up and coming generation put more stock in reviews, testimonials and genuine feedback from real people (read: &lsquo;influencers&rsquo;) than they do price or value for money. It makes sense that the same would be said about who they want to work for. Utilising platforms like Glassdoor to build your company&rsquo;s brand and voice from the outside-in will give Gen Z some real food for thought when it comes to choosing to work for you. Allow your employees to create their own personal brand too &ndash; within your business, let people &lsquo;be themselves&rsquo; and project that to any potential hires, whether online via social media or throughout the interview process. Let Gen Z see &lsquo;the real you&rsquo;, and you might just secure their engagement and efforts long term.
To recap:
<ul>
<li>
Engage on their level &ndash; using instant messaging rather than email, apps rather than websites.
</li>
<li>
Campaign visual &ndash; use videos and images over text to grab their attention.
</li>
<li>
Keep it snappy &ndash; you&rsquo;ve got 8 seconds to make your point.
</li>
<li>
Keep it real &ndash; don&rsquo;t try to hire a Digital Native on a false promise. Generation Z are all about honesty, integrity and authenticity.
</li>
</ul>
How do you feel about the incoming flood of fresh faces we&rsquo;re going to be interviewing over the coming years? Has your business adapted its processes to include this ambitious generation and, if so, how?

Are you ready to hire Gen Z?

​Driven to Distraction &ndash; Why Your Staff May Be Underperforming Are you easily distracted? Since time began, leaders have been looking for ways to keep their teams focused, on-task and productive. In light of so many people now working from home, &lsquo;distraction&rsquo; is a word that&rsquo;s being used a lot: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m more distracted by external things whilst working from home&rdquo;; &ldquo;I find it easier to focus at home, without the distractions of my co-workers around me&rdquo;. So, what do you get distracted by? Could it be your phone? An email or social media notification? Your dog? All of the above? With our teams back in the office and, in truth, seeming more motivated than ever, it&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ve been thinking about a lot. It led me to pondering distraction in a different way; why is it that when your team is buzzing with motivation, they&rsquo;re less easily distracted? Why is it that when everyone is in that mindset of really trying to push it, those outside factors carry less weight? And so, I came to a realisation. The phone, dog, Facebook, all of that stuff &ndash; those aren&rsquo;t distractions. Those are simply the solution to distraction. The smartphone isn&rsquo;t the distraction; the distraction is the thing that has led the individual to seek out their phone, as a way to avoid whatever it is they&rsquo;re unwilling, unable or afraid to face. It comes from something way deeper, far more internal. Here are some&nbsp;real&nbsp;examples of distractions which may be afflicting your team and leading to less than stellar performance: 1.Unsurety about what they should actually be doing. If your staff aren&rsquo;t 100% sure of what how to do their job, this could lead to a reluctance to do&hellip; Well, anything. The uncertainty and lack of understanding of their role is what leads an employee to seek out something else to focus on. The obvious solution to this would be to offer clear and concise direction to your workforce; but, in the likelihood that you feel as though you&rsquo;ve already done so, the more important factor here is&nbsp;communication. Foster an environment in which your employees feel comfortable and confident enough to ask for help, and be sure to offer it regularly in any case. 2.A disconnect between the day-to-day job and long-term goals. When your employees lose sight of their goals &ndash; whether it be their own (career, earnings, personal aspirations) or the company&rsquo;s (revenue targets, long-term growth goals) &ndash; they&rsquo;re more likely to become distracted. When there&rsquo;s no longer a goal to reach for, a place to aim, it can become difficult for them to translate their day-to-day activity into that &ndash; or any &ndash; purpose. Hence leaving them open to seek out distractions instead. To help mitigate this, have regular catch up meetings with your staff &ndash; not performance reviews or anything quite so formal necessarily, but just a check in to ensure they&rsquo;re still feeling focused and motivated.&nbsp;Don&rsquo;t assume that everyone knows, no less is engaged&nbsp;and working towards the same thing &ndash; it&rsquo;s your job as the manager or business leader to reinforce and keep them connected with their own goals and those of the team. 3.Professionally put? Feeling unchallenged. Simply put? Boredom. Distraction can be derived from many places and, unfortunately, boredom is one of them. If an employee of yours isn&rsquo;t finding the enjoyment in what they&rsquo;re doing, naturally they&rsquo;re going to look elsewhere for stimulation. The same can be said for a lack of challenge; it all comes down to keep the brain engaged and working at something. Challenge and enjoyment in equal measure&nbsp;make for a focused workforce, and one whose minds are too busy to search for miscellaneous things to waste time on. The honest truth is, we all become distracted from time to time &ndash; and, whilst there&rsquo;s nothing wrong with taking a break from the activities which make up your job every now and then, there needs to be an understanding between what defines &lsquo;taking a break&rsquo; and what is actually just the brain looking for a way out; a way to avoid doing what we should be. As a business leader, have a think about the things mentioned above and how they might be affecting your workforce; distraction has a direct link with productivity, or a lack thereof, so implementing some of these practices these into your team&rsquo;s mindset may pay dividends. When do you feel at your most distractable? Awareness is the first key to overcoming; whether your team are now home workers or in the office, being driven to distraction can take its toll on performance. For more management tips, have a look at the other articles published by me on LinkedIn &ndash; I love a discussion, so get in touch by leaving a comment. And, of course, to talk anything recruitment related, get in touch with the Certus team today.

Driven to Distraction – Why Your Staff May Be Underperforming

​As a manager, it can often feel impossible to do your own job to its best, fight all the fires which need fighting AND stay on top of the team and how they&rsquo;re feeling. Fostering motivation across a team, large or small, can be one of the trickiest parts of being a leader. Be honest: doing the same job day in, day out, can become monotonous. From time to time, a member of your workforce is going to become bored or unchallenged, thus becoming demotivated. And a lack of enthusiasm for the job almost always has a directly negative effect on business performance. So, motivate them by helping your employees find meaningfulness in the everyday activities of their job. The word meaningfulness is quite a mouthful, and its definition follows. Meaningfulness doesn&rsquo;t mean to find enjoyment or happiness in what you do, but to delve into why you&rsquo;re doing it; what&rsquo;s the purpose, what is it going to help with, what are you contributing to. Having your employees find meaningfulness in their work can improve:
<ul>
<li>
Job satisfaction &ndash; and as a result, increase staff retention
</li>
<li>
Employee engagement &ndash; by helping align your employees&rsquo; goals with those of the company
</li>
<li>
Mental health &ndash; by reducing the stresses attributed to completing their job
</li>
</ul>
Finding the meaningfulness in their job will help employees remember why they&rsquo;re doing it during the tough times, whilst they&rsquo;re facing challenges. So, some examples of what &lsquo;finding meaningfulness&rsquo; might look like:
<ul>
<li>
Why should I devote some time to clearing my inbox this afternoon?&nbsp;Because it will help me prioritise the tasks I have left to complete, and reduce the chance of me becoming or feeling overwhelmed by my workload.
</li>
<li>
Why am I attending this meeting?&nbsp;Because it will help myself, and my employer, on the path to achieving our goals. It will bring me recognition at work, and a feeling of accomplishment.
</li>
<li>
Why is it important for me to spend time properly analysing this spreadsheet?&nbsp;Because it may contain important data and metrics which could really help boost team direction and performance moving forwards.
</li>
</ul>
When an employee finds meaning in even the simplest of tasks, they&rsquo;ll also find satisfaction. A person who finds satisfaction in the role is more likely to stick around, seeking challenge and/or progression on the day to day. By leading your employees to understand the role they play, you create a connection between the person as an individual, their place in the team and how they contribute to the business. Finding meaningfulness is akin to understanding the value you add, and where. And doing so can play a huge part in positively impacting employee engagement levels. Finding meaningfulness in what some might consider &ldquo;menial&rdquo; tasks has been proven to reduce stress, thus motivating staff to get on with the bits of the job they may not find as satisfying as others. Mental health should be at the forefront of every manager&rsquo;s mind &ndash; so stay abreast of who&rsquo;s avoiding doing what, get to the bottom of why, and us meaningfulness to help them find a way to enjoy even the small, seemingly insignificant tasks. As a manager, motivation is paramount to a high-performing team &ndash; and reminding your employees of the point behind the work they do could be just the ticket to keeping them on track. When you partner with us, you don&rsquo;t just benefit from years of recruiting expertise, a world-class network and a team of dedicated consultants &ndash; but all of that on top of years spent understanding how to retain and motivate individuals once they&rsquo;ve been hired. We&rsquo;re not a one-and-done recruitment agency &ndash; we&rsquo;re a recruitment partner, and we want to grow your business with you, for the long-term. Our team is slowly but surely returning from furlough and we couldn&rsquo;t be more proud &ndash; don&rsquo;t hesitate to get in touch.

Motivating Your Team By Finding Meaningfulness

It can sometimes be difficult to confidently ascertain what level you should be hiring at. Are you time-rich but tight budgeted? Do you have quotas which need to be met from the off, or are you in a position to hire and mould someone to fill the gap in your team? Do you need someone to bring their own experience/knowledge, or are you in a position to do the teaching? Answer our quick and nifty questionnaire below to determine what level your next hire should come in at! Why are you looking to hire? a) We have a problem which needs solving, fast.&nbsp;10 pts b) We&rsquo;re replacing an employee who has left the business.&nbsp;25 pts c) We&rsquo;re growing, so we need someone who&rsquo;s hungry to learn.&nbsp;50 pts More important than anything is understanding the circumstances which led to, and the reason behind, this vacancy you&rsquo;re currently trying to fill. If you answered A, you&rsquo;re most likely looking for a specific skillset, or experience in a certain area. It&rsquo;ll be difficult for someone without to come in and get the ball rolling immediately. B speaks for itself &ndash; you&rsquo;re aware of what worked well, not so well and anything in between with whoever was doing the job previously, so you can base your candidate profile on this. And as for C? If it&rsquo;s a case of business growth and your intentions are less set in stone, there&rsquo;s room for some flexibility in the profile you&rsquo;re going to be looking for. Could a fresh graduate be just the ticket? Where does your salary budget for this role sit in the market? a) Money is no object &ndash; I need someone who can do the job, now.&nbsp;10 pts b) I&rsquo;m interested to see what I can get for the budget I have.&nbsp;25 pts c) My budget isn&rsquo;t huge, but I have time on my hands.&nbsp;50 pts To be frank, budget is one of if not the most crucial factor when undergoing a recruitment campaign of any scope. There needs to be a strong correlation between expectations of the candidates you&rsquo;re hoping to attract and the competitiveness of the salary on offer. All of this depends on where you&rsquo;re at as a business, the time you as a leader &ndash; or another dedicated staff member &ndash; has to spend onboarding a new starter, and the type of role you&rsquo;re trying to fill; are you in a position to invest more money into someone who could truly hit the ground running? Alternatively, can you make up for what you lack in budget by implementing a killer training scheme and investing time into nurturing this person? Speaking of which&hellip; What sort of training do you have in mind for this individual? a) Little, initially. They need to be confident in what they&rsquo;re doing, but we&rsquo;ll be here to provide support and resources. 10 pts b) We will support ongoing training, but we need skills to build upon. 25 pts c) We&rsquo;re looking for a fresh mind to cultivate! 50 pts If you need this person to carry a number from day one, you&rsquo;ll want to hire someone with experience, possibly contacts to draw upon, and likely from a specific sector &ndash; answer A. If you resonated more with answer B &ndash; of course, training when it&rsquo;s needed is a given &ndash; then you need to be looking at profiles/backgrounds which include at least exposure to the role in question. And if C jumped out to you? Well, with the right investment of time and training, you won&rsquo;t go wrong in hiring someone with no bad habits and a clean slate upon which to work. So, what level should you hire at? If you scored 30-50 points: Your needs are specific, your profile more narrow; you need a more senior hire. Someone who knows and understands your industry and/or the role they&rsquo;ll be undertaking. In this instance, it&rsquo;ll be easier to tell from a CV whether someone is going to be suitable, so put your all into engaging and networking with your target candidates online. If you scored 50-100 points: Whilst you require a basis upon which to build, your target candidate profile isn&rsquo;t as strict as above. Hiring someone at junior to mid-level, who already has exposure to a working environment, means at the very least they&rsquo;ve proved their work ethic &ndash; so bring them on board and have them build a long-term career with your organisation! If you scored 100+ points: A graduate could be just what you need! What they lack in experience they make up for in drive, enthusiasm and hunger &ndash; to learn, to progress and to prove themselves in their first career move. If your business has the capacity to nurture and support someone in these early years, it will pay dividends in the future. Certus Graduate source top percentile graduates to build high-performing sales teams on behalf of our clients. Head to their LinkedIn page @Certus Graduate for more content, and don&rsquo;t hesitate to get in touch with our expert team in London to discuss our innovative assessment techniques and recruitment strategies for grad schemes and entry-level roles.

At what level should you be hiring?

Mind Blanking &ndash; why it happens, and how to manage it We&rsquo;ve all been there. Someone asks you a question, even a fairly innocent one which requires little contemplation&hellip; And your mind just ups and leaves. Mind blank. It can happen any time, but most of us will agree that it&rsquo;s one of life&rsquo;s many mysteries, bound to happen at the most inopportune moment. Having a &lsquo;mind blank&rsquo; &ndash; as in, knowing you have the correct information somewhere but being unable to access it at present &ndash; is something many of us experience during, of course, a job interview &ndash; and it&rsquo;s incredibly frustrating. Let&rsquo;s try to understand the science behind mind blanking occurs, in order to try and overcome them in time: Why do they happen? There&rsquo;s science behind those blank moments of searching. Like many innate reactions we humans experience day-to-day, the &lsquo;mind blank&rsquo; is actually one of the age-old fight-or-flight mechanisms we developed to survive; based on feelings of anxiety, the brain attempts to shield itself from the situation it&rsquo;s currently facing, in order to mitigate the stress said situation is inducing. A lot, isn&rsquo;t it. Melodramatic when put into the context of a job interview? Sure. But it makes sense; the brain feels under pressure, the human can&rsquo;t perform, and so our brain moves to protect us from that fear. Almost entirely unhelpful in this context, but interesting nonetheless. So, mind-blanking is indiscriminate and can hit any of us at any moment. When we do research and prep before an interview, our brain is at ease, hence how we&rsquo;re able to learn. When sat opposite your potential next employer, all that goes out of the window. Whether you know the answer or don&rsquo;t, you&rsquo;re as likely to experience this &ndash; so the key is to be prepared when it happens: Take a big, deep breath. Simply put, you&rsquo;re experiencing a mind blank due to nerves. Buy yourself a little bit of time &ndash; take a deep breath, settle yourself and give your brain what it needs. The answer is in there, you just can&rsquo;t access it right this second &ndash; but trust me, oxygen will help. Repeat the question. Going over what you already know not only gives yourself time to think, but reiterates to your interviewer that you understand XYZ &ndash; or, at the very least, presents an opportunity to deal with any confusion in the meantime. Repeating the question is a great way to nudge your mind into motion, as is summarising key points so far &ndash; talking about what you do know will help you find the info you need. Admit that your mind has gone blank! There&rsquo;s no shame in it &ndash; and, as a recruiter of candidates junior, senior and everything in between &ndash; I can tell you for nothing that it happens to all of us, at any level of our career. It happens during interviews, important phone calls, at the key moment of a presentation; so make light of the situation. Trying not to &ldquo;umm&rdquo; and &ldquo;err&rdquo;, admit that your mind has pulled a blank and let you down; it won&rsquo;t take long for it to catch up and get on board, so being honest and open in the situation breeds understanding amongst two people who have both likely been through the same thing. It isn&rsquo;t a big deal. And it certainly doesn&rsquo;t signify the end of your chances at success. Your interviewer will be no exception &ndash; having a mind blank is completely normal, albeit inconvenient and nerve-wracking. Interviewing is a skill, one we&rsquo;re proud to help individuals of all levels improve and develop. Job seeking is a tough game &ndash; so, if any of the above rings true, especially given the current circumstances, we&rsquo;re happy to talk interview tips and technique here at Certus. Get in touch today.

Mind Blanking – why it happens, and how to manage it

The working landscape has shifted massively in the last year, particularly for those who work in offices. We are emerging from a period of workplace disruption, it&rsquo;s time for businesses to refresh workplace culture and get people excited about working together again.
&nbsp;
The pandemic caused a number of unique challenges for employers and has overturned the working experience. Forward-thinking leaders are adjusting to ensure they can attract top talent while retaining their existing employees.
&nbsp;
As we prepare for working life away from lockdowns, it&rsquo;s critical for business leaders to consider how they will shift their recruitment and retainment strategies.
&nbsp;
So, what are candidates mainly seeking from employment post-COVID and how can you apply this to your recruitment strategy?
&nbsp;
Prioritise wellness
&nbsp;
People are the spark of a business and have a direct impact on its success, growth and reputation. Poor employee wellbeing and lack of care naturally leads to poor business outcomes.
&nbsp;
The pandemic has led to important mental health conversations and has shifted how people think about work and what they want out of life. For many, the chance to reflect led them to consider what truly matters, this is why wellbeing infrastructures have expanded across multiple industries.
&nbsp;
When it comes to attracting and retaining staff, people are looking to join innovative businesses that place the health and wellness of their people at the forefront. This shows that you genuinely care by going beyond the typical perks.
&nbsp;
When considering an effective wellbeing strategy, remember to consider the following:
&nbsp;
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Identify areas of focus for wellbeing by seeking ideas from employees
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Engage employees in all stages of the development of the plan
&nbsp;
Communicate openly
&nbsp;
Transparency has never been more attractive to job-seekers. More than ever, people are seeking environments with open communication and trust at the centre.
&nbsp;
Prospective candidates want to see that your business creates efficient communication channels where they can express themselves and be heard.
&nbsp;
Developing an environment with nurturing and supportive leadership will create an environment where people feel seen, heard and recognised and ultimately want to be and stay.
&nbsp;
Communicating transparently builds trust with employees current and new, which leads to happier, more engaged workers.
&nbsp;
Optimise your employer brand
&nbsp;
With skill shortages and organisations competing for talent, employer branding plays a major role.
&nbsp;
The communications of your business, i.e. your company website, social media platforms and brand tone of voice should ideally come together in an employer brand story, that separates you from competitors.
&nbsp;
Candidates tend to look for businesses that stand out from the crowd in terms of storytelling, they want to visualise themselves in a company, which you can solve by fine-tuning your employer brand.
&nbsp;
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Define your message and values
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Nurture your culture
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Understand brand perception
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Embrace technology
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Treat candidates like customers
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Use storytelling
&nbsp;
Rethink talent needs
&nbsp;
Differentiate your company so employees want to work for you rather than your competition.
&nbsp;
Outline the talent gaps in your business and refocus your strategies to attract the people who will drive future success. Analyse your most significant challenges and what kind of people could help you overcome them. By identifying the types of candidates you want to attract, you can build on boosting your employer brand to attract them.
&nbsp;
Getting this right will encourage fresh talent to join your business.
&nbsp;
Get employee feedback
&nbsp;
Give your employees a voice by gathering feedback through one-on-one conversations and surveys. In today&rsquo;s post-pandemic world, it&rsquo;s crucial to understand employee wellbeing, work relationships, and support structure. By gathering this data, you can work on addressing feedback, before eyes wander and employees leave.
&nbsp;
Making your employees feel heard shows that you want to listen to them and that their thoughts and feelings are valid.
&nbsp;
Promote flexibility
&nbsp;
A flexible or remote working schedule is one of the most in-demand perks, especially since the start of the pandemic.
&nbsp;
One of the main benefits people have seen from home-working is the ability for more autonomy when it comes to individual work/life balance.
&nbsp;
Additionally, commuting time is saved and can be spent working on business progression, as well as taking care of personal matters, which ultimately reduces employee stress and boosts morale.
&nbsp;
Give recognition
&nbsp;
Employees want to feel that they are important to your success. It&rsquo;s important to show your appreciation for what they do and how they contribute to your business growth. This is particularly key when organisations grow and develop. It helps teams build a sense of security, motivating them to continue great work.
&nbsp;
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Give shout-outs
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Offer fun projects or development opportunities
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Encourage peer-to-peer recognition
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Just say thank you!
&nbsp;
-
&nbsp;
The post-pandemic world of employment is disruptive and exciting, and business growth is dependent on your ability to think and lead differently.
&nbsp;
If you&rsquo;re looking to build your team, Certus takes the time to understand your company&rsquo;s position within its market.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com/company/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Get in touch today to find out how we can support your growth plans.</a>

Attracting and retaining staff as we exit the pandemic

​Recruitment, like many industries, is constantly having to adapt and change. We&rsquo;re affected by so many factors &ndash; technological, economic, political even &ndash; and keeping up is both challenging and, often, quite a lot of fun. Lately it&rsquo;s been nothing short of inspiring to see how the recruitment community has come together, in more ways than one. First off, we&rsquo;ve seen many recruiters unfortunately lose their jobs due to the pandemic &ndash; and a resulting massive uplift in open referrals to colleagues, clients, old friends even, to help them secure a new role. Next, there&rsquo;s the jobseekers: I for one have observed, on multiple occasions, recruiters sharing profiles of amazing candidates they&rsquo;ve worked with at some point, with no expectation of a fee of any kind; simply trying to help the many people who&rsquo;ve been made redundant here in the UK. But more than just banding together, the recruitment industry as a whole seems to be changing, almost certainly for the better &ndash; and I&rsquo;d love to hear what my fellow recruiters and recruitment are experiencing. Here&rsquo;s how things are looking from our end. We're doing even more retained work. Retained projects are somewhat of a holy grail for recruiters. Simply the commitment from a business who&rsquo;s saying, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re putting our trust in you to fill this role,&rdquo; is quite something when it comes to motivation. It means taking the utmost pride in our work, every step of the way. These days, we&rsquo;re finding clients are actually out to find the&nbsp;right&nbsp;partner to fill roles for them, resulting in us picking up retained work every week. Frankly, it feels&nbsp;great&nbsp;to finally be able to demonstrate why retained search is simply more effective. This shift is something we&rsquo;ve known to be inevitable for a while, as people begin to realise the value in guaranteed-outcome recruitment; you wouldn&rsquo;t work with an IT service provider who told you their service works some of the time, would you? Which leads us on to&hellip; Employers are finally learning the benefits of exclusivity. We might have been singing this song for years now, but there&rsquo;s a reason: working with one agency is simply more productive (provided we do our job properly, of course). From an employer&rsquo;s perspective, conducting a recruitment campaign with just one source of talent (minus your own direct/internal applicants) is undoubtedly going to save time, hassle and admin. Outsourcing a process to two, three, five suppliers ultimately means receiving as much work in return as a result, from arranging terms of business to corresponding with multiple parties at every stage through to, quite simply, having to work out which candidate came from where, and so on and so forth. Furthermore, again, motivation is a real thing and the opportunity to prove ourselves is a strong way to achieve it. Much like retained search, giving a partner like us exclusivity means you simply know that we&rsquo;re putting every foot forward to find you the absolute best candidates we can. And with that in mind&hellip; We're being held accountable at every stage. Recruitment has a bad name &ndash; there, I said it. This is because there are too many outs for &lsquo;bad&rsquo; recruiters; too many gaps for quality control to slip through, along with best practices which aren&rsquo;t regulated. Now, with the advent of more retained work and exclusive projects to work on, guess what? It&rsquo;s on us. Accountability makes us work&nbsp;harder, aim&nbsp;higher, be&nbsp;better&nbsp;&ndash; and we&rsquo;re not ashamed to say so. This is an industry-wide thing; we&rsquo;re seeing our peers up their level of service, and less and less &rsquo;recruiter bashing&rsquo; happening as a result. There&rsquo;s no longer a place to hide in recruitment: this time, the industry&rsquo;s doing things right. Covid has affected many things and, whilst we know the Certus name has already been built on exceptional service, we think that perhaps this pandemic was the push into that next level the industry as a whole needed. What say you?

How Recruitment is Changing – For the Better

Does your company stand out from the crowd? Benefits go way beyond financial incentives and say more about your organisation than you think. Secure top talent and elevate your hiring strategy now! <a href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com">www.certusrecruitment.com</a>
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Cultural Benefits (Video)

​Is your business ready to expand into the UK or Europe? Through our own international expansion and through helping other companies grow their footprint, our 3 keys to successfully building an office overseas are:
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Expanding Internationally (Video)

​Recruitment - It's who we are - It's what we do!
&nbsp;
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Contact Certus Recruitment to see how we can help you secure the very best in available talent, find that dream job or help you strategise your next hire.

Recruiters (Video)

​A robust and speedy recruitment process always pays dividends... A speedy recruitment process also says more about your business than you may think!
&nbsp;
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A Speedy Recruitment Process (Video)

​Are you ready for IR35? Reach out now for a free IR35 Assessment and find how we can assist you, moving forward...
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IR35 - Are You Ready (Video)

As an employer, do you know the difference between a Job Advert and a Job Description? Reach out to our experienced team and let us help you prepare both.
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Is it a Job Advert or a Job Description? (Video)

Mindset. It sounds clich&eacute;, but it&rsquo;s undeniably important. If there&rsquo;s one thing which is prevalent among successful people, whatever their profession or chosen niche, it&rsquo;s having a growth mindset. The arch nemesis of a growth mindset is the fixed; a fixed view of the world, of yourself and those around you. There are some key differences between the two, but they largely revolve around learning. A person with a fixed mindset believes that the traits they&rsquo;re born with are essentially as good as it gets &ndash; we&rsquo;re born with a certain amount of talent or skill in any given subject, and whilst we can practice in order to hone that skill, we&rsquo;ll never &lsquo;get better&rsquo; at it than the maximum innate level. On the contrary, those with a growth mindset are of the opinion that any trait can be learned, and certainly improved on, with practice, education and plain old effort. These are the people you want to be hiring. Besides the obvious, those with a growth mindset are beneficial in business for many reasons; they&rsquo;re great problem solvers, for one. Growth mindset-ers will face down any challenges which come their way with fervour and enthusiasm. They&rsquo;ll learn from their mistakes to become a more well-rounded version of themselves. Generally speaking, they&rsquo;ll make a great addition to any ambitious, forward-thinking team. There are ways to identify the two different types of mindset, and certainly some things to look out for at interview. Have a read of the points below. Signs of a fixed mindset:
<ul>
<li>
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a [insert skill here] person, but I make up for it elsewhere.&rdquo;&nbsp;We all have things we&rsquo;re better at than others, but statements like are a fundamental barrier to learning. If a line like this one comes up at interview, probe to try and understand more about it &ndash; is it something they&rsquo;ve tried to improve, or have they effectively written it off and avoided the subject completely? Furthermore, what does either of these scenarios say about their mindset?
</li>
<li>
Little to no mention, or avoiding talking about, past failures.&nbsp;Those with a fixed mindset tend to view failures as exactly that &ndash; something to steer clear of at all costs. Conversely, those with a growth mindset understand that failure is a) inevitable and b) one of, if not the most important tool for learning. We want candidates to promote their successes, for sure, but to also be mindful of what brought them there &ndash; and failure may well have played a part in that.
</li>
<li>
Viewing the success of others as a threat &ndash; which may manifest as not coming across as a true &lsquo;team player&rsquo;. Where, on the other hand, individuals with a growth mindset will seek out mentorship and collaboration with successful figures, as a source of inspiration and learning. Ask questions around team situations and opportunities they&rsquo;ve had to work alongside colleagues or managers they respect, and try to grasp whether they fit within the fixed or growth mindset based on their feelings about them.
</li>
</ul>
An interesting point to remember about fixed vs growth mindsets is that it is possible, if not particularly common, for someone to have a mixture of both. When it comes to certain aspects of their life, a person could simply believe there&rsquo;s no hope &ndash; for instance athleticism or maths &ndash; whilst consistently pushing themselves to grow and learn in their career or another area. Just as no two skills are the same, nor are two mindsets. It&rsquo;s not our job to pigeonhole a candidate at interview stage, but to understand as much as we can and make as well-informed of a decision as possible. Also try to remember that interviews are far from a natural situation, one in which most people feel uncomfortable. If someone&rsquo;s portraying a decidedly fixed mindset-esque outlook, that&rsquo;s not to say it will be so on the job. With almost 20 years of experience in qualifying executive level candidates through thorough tactical interviewing, Certus Recruitment Group are truly able to grasp these important concepts at interview on behalf of our clients. We&rsquo;re also well equipped to help you do it yourself. Get in touch with our team to discuss the ramifications of hiring growth vs fixed mindset individuals, and the incredible dividends doing so can pay for your business.

How to Identify and Hire for Growth Mindset

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It&rsquo;s turned our world upside down, our economy inside out and, frankly, some of us around the bend; to say the effects of the Covid pandemic will be long and far-reaching is somewhat of an understatement. But, it&rsquo;s not all bad; I believe many of us will have learned something. I&rsquo;m not talking about a new language, skill or love for cooking &ndash; I mean about ourselves and, certainly as a business leader, what&rsquo;s important moving forwards. When planning the year ahead at the back end of 2019, none of us saw this coming. Businesses have had to adapt, diversify and, in some cases, simply survive. So the question I&rsquo;d like to ask is, how has this changed your people strategy? A &ldquo;people strategy&rdquo; by definition is a plan which pertains to building relationships with your employees, existing and new. It&rsquo;s important to have &ndash; and never more so than right now. Here are my key points which business leaders should consider implementing into theirs over the coming months: 1.Prioritising trust as a key driver of your culture Many businesses are currently facing two scenarios at present &ndash; one where our people have proved themselves able to work productively from home, and the other where they&rsquo;ve stuck by us throughout an uncertain period of furlough or temporary lay-off. In both of these scenarios, the overriding take away has had to be trust. Moving forwards, building a culture of trust, dependability and understanding between your leadership and the team is going to be absolutely key to thriving. Your business should be a community where everyone works toward the same goals, wherever they might be physically working from; placing your trust as a business leader or manager in your people to do the right thing and act in the right way is crucial to post-Covid company culture, regardless of industry, size or otherwise. 2.Maintaining transparency about the future of the business Your growth targets, aims and aspirations for the business this year now likely differ drastically to what you may have written down in January. As such, the employees who are now phasing back into work may feel some unsurety about their own futures here. Moving forwards, business leaders need to provide staff &ndash; new and returning &ndash; with real, transparent information as to where the future of the business lies and what that could mean for them. That means reassuring existing staff as to what they can or should expect, and keeping them updated on what goes on &lsquo;behind closed doors&rsquo; &ndash; to a required and professional minimum, but with transparency nonetheless. For new hires, this means being upfront and honest about the challenges which may have ensued in the wake of Covid, and allowing them more of an inside track. Not only is this simply fair, it&rsquo;ll really help to build the sense of community which many businesses are going to find beneficial as we navigate through the unprecedented and as yet unexplored repercussions to be felt in the UK in the coming months, if not years. 3.Seeing remote working as a part of your strategy, not simply a perk The truth is, even if a vaccine did materialise or somehow Covid simply wasn&rsquo;t around anymore, many individuals just aren&rsquo;t going to be comfortable with being in close-contact with people for a while. No one can deny that remote working is going to become a part of every business&rsquo; future; so, with a view to easing any worries that your existing or future workforce may be having about social distancing and the like, start implementing it as a standard. Even limited face to face interaction will certainly work wonders for your culture, team bonding and the like, but there&rsquo;s no reason that we shouldn&rsquo;t all be considering ways in which our businesses can work as effectively remotely from here on in. Have open dialogue with your staff about how they&rsquo;d like to work, how they feel they work best and what they feel most comfortable with. And, if that happens to be from home, so be it. Remote working is no longer a benefit to list in the &ldquo;why work for us&rdquo; section &ndash; it&rsquo;s a given. What would you add to this list? If you&rsquo;d like some no-obligation advice about the challenges &ndash; and benefits &ndash; of hiring in the current climate, I&rsquo;d love to talk. Don&rsquo;t hesitate to shoot me a message, or get in touch in the comments to arrange a chat.
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3 Key Points to Your Post-Covid People Strategy

​Management. It&rsquo;s a new height in your career and one which many, nay the majority of us aspire to. So, if you&rsquo;ve recently made it to that level &ndash; congratulations! Making the jump from a general team member or even team leadership role is a big step and great achievement. It&rsquo;s likely that you&rsquo;ve found yourself here by way of one of a few different scenarios: You&rsquo;ve been promoted and are now managing those you worked alongside previously You&rsquo;ve been promoted and given the responsibility of hiring your own team from scratch You&rsquo;ve been hired externally and brought in to build a new team You&rsquo;ve been hired externally and brought in to manage an existing team Each situation poses its own challenges, its own obstacles to overcome, but more than anything, its own opportunities. Here are 3 important things you as a new manager should consider doing as you ease into your new role: 1.Clarify expectations And from every angle. As a new manager with a team already in place, it&rsquo;s important to understand what each individual is expecting from you as a manager &ndash; and to make clear what you&rsquo;re looking for from them. Take some time to sit down with your team and answer some key questions such as what the overall goal is, what they feel is achievable and realistic, where they require your help and support the most. One of the most common causes of discord between a new manager inheriting an in-situ team comes down to a discrepancy in expectations so, over the first 30 days of your new role, take the time to set expectations and hold yourself, and your team, accountable to them. Equally, in terms of your own responsibilities, clarifying the expectations from those sitting above you is crucial. If there&rsquo;s no team in place yet and it&rsquo;s your responsibility to build one, ensure you&rsquo;re on the same page with regards to hiring &ndash; profile, timeline and budget. 2.Be both visible and available It goes without saying that in your new role as a manager, you should be hands-on from the off. Whether that means proving your tenacity to the powers-that-be above and creating an energetic persona as you go about hiring your soon-to-be team, or spending real quality time on the floor with the current one, being seen &lsquo;in the trenches&rsquo; so to speak will ensure your success in the initial stages. Being available and being visible as a manager go hand in hand; when employees become used to you being around, they&rsquo;ll know they&rsquo;re able to approach you for support, expertise and resources. Prove your accountability and presence in that first month, and you&rsquo;ll be off to a flying start. 3.Ask for feedback We&rsquo;re not just talking about, &ldquo;How am I doing?&rdquo; here. If the team is already in place, understanding how they&rsquo;re feeling is important &ndash; what&rsquo;s changed since you became their manager? What hasn&rsquo;t? What could be done differently, or improved upon? Whilst it doesn&rsquo;t hurt to have the odd catch up and understand how they feel about you as a manager directly, it&rsquo;s also pertinent to make your team feel involved. Consult with them on strategy, operations, goal setting. Are you all on the same page in terms of the vision? Asking for feedback and consulting regularly with your team will help you all connect and build strong relationships, employee-employee as well as employee-manager; it&rsquo;ll also help mitigate any problems before they arise or grow out of proportion. Asking for feedback lets your employees know you have their interests at the heart of everything you do &ndash; which will garner trust and respect, from both sides. Management can be challenging, but as business leaders I&rsquo;m sure we can all agree that there&rsquo;s little else so rewarding as seeing the team you work alongside thrive. Our teams are experts in building yours &ndash; and we have a tip or two about strong management and leadership skills, as a business improvement and growth strategy, too. If you&rsquo;re a manager whose team has capacity to grow, we&rsquo;d love to hear more about your vision. Get in touch with Certus Recruitment Group today.

3 things every new manager should do during their first 30 days on the job

In today&rsquo;s world, successfully building a diverse workforce is like wearing a badge of honour &ndash; but doing so doesn&rsquo;t automatically mean that your workplace itself actually practices inclusivity. So what&rsquo;s the difference? Simply put, diversity refers to the bringing together of people from all backgrounds, genders, different ethnicities, religions and more. Inclusivity on the other hand means making sure that each and every one of those people has an equal opportunity to be heard, respected and valued by that same business. Making the right choices in hiring will bring you the diversity of workforce you want and need, but it&rsquo;s embodying inclusivity as a leader which will ensure equilibrium, balance and, as a result, satisfaction across the team. An inclusive leader is fair. The number one way to be an inclusive leader is to treat each employee equally according to their ability, not their background. You should be looking beyond gender, race or otherwise in order to understand each individual&rsquo;s skills and how they can bring benefit to your organisation, the team around them and the workplace as a whole. When it comes to promotion and recognition in the workplace, this still stands; whether someone&rsquo;s been doing the job for 10 years or 10 days, their attitude, effort and performance should dictate their success &ndash; not their background. An inclusive leader is aware of, and draws attention to, unconscious bias. Unconscious bias is what happens when our mind makes a decision based on a pre-programmed response, which we likely had no conscious part in or control over building. Our unconscious biases are formulated based on our own background and experiences and, as the term would suggest, we&rsquo;re not always aware they&rsquo;re even there. An inclusive leader dissects their own decisions to ensure they&rsquo;re acting (or reacting) to the situation at hand, rather than subconscious pathways which develop without thinking &ndash; working by fact, rather than making rash or impulsive decisions. Understanding your own unconscious biases and encouraging your employees to do the same will promote an inclusive environment, where everyone possesses the same chance at success. An inclusive leader appreciates that a diverse workforce means new ways of thinking. And isn&rsquo;t afraid of change! Having a diverse workforce means diverse ways of thinking, doing and ideas &ndash; which are worth nothing if each isn&rsquo;t listened to, evaluated and then acted upon based on merit, rather than who it came from. Inclusive leaders give everyone a voice, regardless of who or what they are. These days there&rsquo;s little more important than embracing individuality and the successes which can be borne of a diverse, inclusive and collaborative workplace. The human race is, thanks to technology, more connected than ever, which allows businesses the opportunity to differentiate their offering; sourcing talent from all corners of the world is now commonplace with the advent of remote working, relocation and online platforms. As a business leader, if you&rsquo;re not taking advantage of that: you should be. Inclusive leaders are people-focused individuals &ndash; they look for the who, not the what. They take an interest in people who share their values, but boast different talents, skills or beliefs to their own. An inclusive leader will demonstrate rather than command, and dig deep into each individual staff member to find and appreciate what it is they bring to the table. Promoting an inclusive workplace doesn&rsquo;t mean just ticking boxes &ndash; it&rsquo;s about doing the best by your people and driving business success as such.

How to be an Inclusive Leader

Marketing: such a broad term, yet one which so many people want to work within. In fact, according to a 2019 survey conducted by Glassdoor, it&rsquo;s the third most desirable job sector here in the UK. As a recruiter, I often interview entry-level/graduate candidates who say they want to work &lsquo;in marketing&rsquo; but, when you delve a little deeper, they have little understanding of what exactly that means. Marketing is a huge system of myriad channels &ndash; many of which are impossible to understand until you&rsquo;re in the midst of them. Which is why, when you&rsquo;re building your marketing team, it&rsquo;s important to consider what you actually need: in such a creative, ever-changing profession, the meeting of minds often breeds better, faster results than training might. Which is why marketing mentorship is so very key. Marketing is, technically, something many people could do &ndash; with so many online courses, qualifications and ways to self-learn or self-educate, there are few real obstacles for somebody who wants to learn the movements, the basics. But what about the psychology, the science behind it all? Marketing encompasses tech skills, design, writing, working with numbers and so much more &ndash; all skills which we either possess or would be able to hone by ourselves. But the meeting of minds in a profession such as marketing is what breeds ideas, understanding and overall success. This is where a mentor comes in. A marketing mentor is much more than a teacher or trainer. They&rsquo;re also a: 1) Sounding board for ideas &ndash; good and bad &ndash; offering the opportunity to deconstruct, evaluate and rethink things to the betterment of your/your clients&rsquo; goals 2) Challenger &ndash; to help an individual understand why they think A is a better strategy than B, or to ask different questions and create different thought patterns 3) Motivator &ndash; in an industry where opinions differ and creativity can as quickly be stifled as encouraged, your mentor ensures that you&rsquo;re able to persevere and stay driven throughout the good times, and the bad A mentor helps draw out ideas which exist, but aren&rsquo;t going to come to the surface without some prodding and poking. A mentor speaks from experience &ndash; what has worked historically and what hasn&rsquo;t, or even why what works for one won&rsquo;t for another. A mentor is able to draw upon numbers and statistics, things they&rsquo;ve learned along the way, rather than basing decisions on common sense. Furthermore, they&rsquo;ll still ensure that your junior marketer learns by trial and error themselves, so that one day they can speak of the same experience. Working in marketing, there&rsquo;s near-unlimited online resources for learning the &lsquo;how&rsquo; &ndash; simply reading blogs or utilising classroom-based learning (whether online or IRL) can teach you a lot. But the role of a marketing mentor is to help a person understand what they&rsquo;re doing and, most crucially,&nbsp;why. Show me any successful athlete, business owner, author or otherwise, and you&rsquo;ll find a mentor to whom they attribute much of their success not far behind. In an industry as fast-paced, diverse and often ambiguous as marketing, real-life skills and experience are invaluable. You&rsquo;re planning to hire someone who can come into your team and look after the company&rsquo;s [social media, print, digital marketing] capabilities&hellip; But, should you be considering developing your current team and instead hiring a mentor with which to do so? It could be a best-of-both-worlds situation. Please share your experience with us, whether you work in marketing or another sector altogether &ndash; do you have a business mentor and, if so, is it something you&rsquo;d recommend to those just starting out or hoping to develop their career in any given sector? Whether you&rsquo;re looking to add to your marketing team, or looking for general advice on the strategy in development for the future of it, we&rsquo;re here to help. Get in touch with myself or one of my marketing-specialist recruiters covering the UK today.

Marketing: Mentor or Manager?

We humans are an interesting bunch &ndash; despite there being no scientific evidence that ostriches do in fact bury their heads in the sand, the term &ldquo;being an ostrich&rdquo; has become synonymous with doing exactly that. Fun fact &ndash; ostriches do no such thing. But managers do. The running of a business isn&rsquo;t always a process without its challenges and bumps in the road; problems are going to arise which you need to face head-on, rather than pretending you&rsquo;re unaware or hoping they&rsquo;ll disappear of their own accord. I think the situation which is fast-blooming here in the UK with regards to Covid-19, and around the world for that matter, speaks enough to this cause. Myriad issues can arise in the workplace, both those which can be avoided in future and those which are entirely unprecedented, as we&rsquo;re all quickly learning; the key is, as a manager, not to bury your head in the sand and hope it&rsquo;ll all blow over. Here are some key tips on how to stay conscious in your leadership whilst trying to manage through a period of conflict. Know when to step in. There are tiers of leadership for a reason, sure &ndash; it&rsquo;s so that when an immediate manager feels unable, they too have someone to turn to. As a business leader it&rsquo;s crucial that you understand what&rsquo;s going on, when it&rsquo;s gone beyond your subordinate&rsquo;s power, and when it requires you to take the matter into your own hands. We could be talking about a clash of personalities for instance, creative differences between employees, or even staff who get on well but don&rsquo;t play benefit to one another in the workplace; rather than waiting to see if it can be handled by another, know when it&rsquo;s your turn to step in and bring about a solution. Leave discussions open. A problem arose, and you solved it &ndash; well done, pat on the back. But, that doesn&rsquo;t mean it&rsquo;ll forever be so; in the fast-changing world of business, it&rsquo;s important that your team understand that any subject is still open. One of the worst things you can do as a manager is to leave employees feeling as though they&rsquo;re unable to bring something up, for fear of &lsquo;dwelling&rsquo; or bringing negativity back into play. When it comes to new processes and systems where problems have been perceived, ongoing awareness and monitoring is needed; new insights, ideas and therefore obstacles are inevitable. As a manager, be willing to admit that your original solution may have been temporary &ndash; take the bull by the horns and focus on finding new solutions, for the now and for the long-term. The longer you bury your head in the sand, the worse things will become. Know when to get serious. As we&rsquo;re all learning &ndash; Mr Johnson the PM included, I&rsquo;d imagine &ndash; it&rsquo;s tough to know when a concern becomes an issue, and when an issue becomes a problem &ndash; one which requires action, and immediately. But the fact is, if you deign always to be an informed, open leader &ndash; one who&rsquo;s abreast of the inner goings-on of your business, current affairs and industry trends &ndash; it&rsquo;s less likely that you&rsquo;ll be taken unawares. When facing a problem head on, it&rsquo;s important to know when to get serious; stop putting things off, stop employing the &lsquo;wait and see&rsquo; method, and take action when it&rsquo;s most needed. Do you tend to bury your head in the sand as a manager? Whilst we can all agree that optimism is paramount and finding the bright side key, being able to admit to an issue and find solutions quickly is tantamount to success across all aspects of your business. False optimism in a time of struggle is more likely to hinder rather than help, especially if your employees feel as though you&rsquo;ve been ignoring it thus far. Transparency in business is a huge trend for 2020 and it&rsquo;s never been more important to face issues with an open, forward-thinking viewpoint. Whilst this always applies, with such divided opinion as to the UK government&rsquo;s response to the coronavirus pandemic, it&rsquo;s never been more relevant. As business leaders, it&rsquo;s our time to face the music and do as best as we can by the businesses we&rsquo;re responsible for, whether that be by implementing home working systems, offering support to our employees or simply trying our best to go on as normal in a safe manner. Whatever you&rsquo;re able to do, don&rsquo;t bury your head in the sand: this is happening, it will affect us all, and we can only tackle it as we must. Sending well wishes to our blog community and beyond under these challenging circumstances!

Ostrich Management: why it doesn’t work

​Now, I must let you know &ndash; this article has been in the works for a little while. That it now happens to be so very relevant, given the current &lsquo;situation&rsquo; worldwide (cough, coronavirus), is pure happenstance. Absenteeism: &ldquo;the practice of regularly staying away from work or school without good reason.&rdquo; As a manager, it&rsquo;s something which (hopefully) doesn&rsquo;t come up often, but is an issue that we all have to face at one point in our career or another. It&rsquo;s also something which isn&rsquo;t widely or openly spoken about &ndash; many consider it somewhat &lsquo;taboo&rsquo; &ndash; however as a leader it can have a significant negative effect on the day to day running of your business. How so? Well, aside from the potential drop in productivity when a member of staff is off work unwell, it can have a knock-on effect on team morale in general. Let&rsquo;s explore the reasons your staff may be feigning a fever to get a day off. They&rsquo;re testing the limits This is realistically the worst case scenario; you&rsquo;ve made a hire who is undermining themselves and the decision you made to bring them on board. But give them the benefit of the doubt and make sure you document their behaviour, look out for the tell-tale signs that you might soon recognise are leading to an early morning text&hellip; And don&rsquo;t leave it too long to approach them about it, lest you leave the rest of the team getting, frankly, annoyed about it too. Lack of motivation If a person is demotivated at work, it shows &ndash; and eventually could lead to continued absenteeism. As a manager it&rsquo;s your job to monitor, identify and understand those who aren&rsquo;t feeling motivated; it&rsquo;ll show in their attitude day-to-day, the speed with which they work, the effort they put into their job. Is someone procrastinating while they are in the office, then failing to show up altogether from time to time? It&rsquo;s your job as a manager to motivate and drive your team &ndash; if that&rsquo;s not happening, you need to get to the bottom of why. If you can see the signs whilst they&rsquo;re in the office, it&rsquo;s crucial to address them quickly and see what changes could be made to get them back on top of their game &ndash; and not feeling as though they just &ldquo;can&rsquo;t be bothered&rdquo; to show up. Mental health The plain truth is that in a lot of instances, if your employee is taking extended periods off work or regularly skipping a day here and there, there&rsquo;s probably an underlying issue which needs to be addressed &ndash; in the correct way. Sometimes, the stress just gets too much. Sometimes we all wake up unable to crawl out of the right side of the bed, get dressed and head into another day of work. Sometimes, it&rsquo;s even worse than that. In general, throughout 2020 (and beyond for that matter), ensuring that your workplace is trying to break all stigma attached to mental health couldn&rsquo;t be more important. As for individual staff, the matter calls for the utmost in sensitivity; bear in mind that, even when approached directly, it&rsquo;s not necessarily something your employee will want to talk to you about. Promote transparency and openness, and a non-judgemental culture overall. All you can do as a good manager is make sure they know that the door is open, if and when they need you for support. ---- The truth is, there will never be a way to entirely wipe out those cheeky &ldquo;sick days&rdquo; which are really dedicated to nursing a killer hangover, or the Fridays off which happen to coincide with the hottest day of the year so far&hellip; But, it is prudent to understand when the reasons behind them are deeper than wanting a &ldquo;personal day&rdquo; spent down the pub. If this is what&rsquo;s happening, don&rsquo;t condone it by pleading ignorance; but you need to identify the patterns of behaviour and address them with each employee individually. Like many issues, talking about it is a good place to start &ndash; so let&rsquo;s share our funniest stories, worst sick day excuses and top tips here. As a business leader, how do you approach employee absenteeism?

Employee Absenteeism: what could be causing it, and how to combat it

To say that the marketing industry is a competitive one might just be the heaviest understatement I can think of, off the top of my head. Coming from a recruiter &ndash; one of the most saturated markets in the United Kingdom &ndash; that&rsquo;s saying something; but with over 250,000 marketing agencies in this country, from tiny boutiques to conglomerate businesses, the new IR35 legislation coming in to play soon has left many of us scrambling to get a hold of understanding and preparing for it as such. Contract recruitment for the marketing industry is a large part of what we do here at Certus, so with questions now coming up almost daily (from clients and candidates alike), we thought it couldn&rsquo;t hurt to put out some answers to the most common questions we&rsquo;re getting and shed some light on this decidedly grey-area pesky piece of work. What is IR35? Put simply, IR35 is legislation which has been written to combat tax and national insurance avoidance. It&rsquo;s an off-payroll rule which applies to &lsquo;workers&rsquo; &ndash; read: contractors and freelancers &ndash; who supply their services via a &lsquo;third party&rsquo; &ndash; read: limited company &ndash; who would otherwise be classed as an employee. Sound confusing? It sort of is, hence the chatter surrounding it. But, rest assured, it only applies to medium and large businesses &ndash; those under 50 employees need not worry. When is it happening? The changes to the original legislation will be enforced from April 2020. Unbeknownst to some, the original IR35 legislation was actually put in place in the year 2000 &ndash; and has had its fair share of criticism ever since. Taking its name from the then Inland Revenue, the IR35 has even been deemed &lsquo;unenforceable&rsquo; by HMRC itself &ndash; catalysing the changes we&rsquo;re now seeing. And, of course, the all-important question: What does it actually mean for UK marketing agencies? In a nutshell? It could mean a significant commercial impact to your business, with few opportunities to circumnavigate it. The conversations I&rsquo;m having on the daily with my clients go something like this: -If your current contractors/freelancers do appear to fall inside the IR35, could there be a way to have them fall outside of the law by tweaking their working hours or arrangements (offering they work remotely, or reducing their hours, for example)? -Could there be an opportunity for them to become a bonafide employee who belongs on the payroll? Is this something the business has considered/could make room for? -Start your research now &ndash; with so much info online, there&rsquo;s no excuse to wait the next couple of months out before beginning to compile your knowledge on what really could be a hugely impactful change to the way your business and its workforce operates. Remember, like most things, there&rsquo;s a lot of grey area with the IR35 (ironically, the resolving of which being the reason for its changing this year); who does and does not fall under the IR35 umbrella comes down to &lsquo;tests of employment&rsquo;, basically the government&rsquo;s way of determining what is and isn&rsquo;t &lsquo;deemed employment&rsquo;. If there&rsquo;s one thing for sure, it&rsquo;s that the marketing world is an exciting place to be &ndash; and, really, if any industry is equipped to deal with change surely it&rsquo;s this one? The innovators, creatives, thinkers of the corporate world &ndash; the adaptable businesses who embrace change like an old friend, with a smile on their face and a coffee to hand. Whilst we&rsquo;re sure it hasn&rsquo;t been designed to make anyone suffer, just the worm hole of legislative terms and jargon alone can send one off into a spin &ndash; which is why we do what we do. The fact is, you might need to re-strategise and revise the internal hiring plans you had &ndash; and we&rsquo;re here every step of the way. You might need to learn more about IR35, before realising that actually everything can continue as is &ndash; in which case, we&rsquo;re loving the work we do and can&rsquo;t wait to continue doing so. As recruitment consultants here at Certus &ndash; consultant being the operative word &ndash; we&rsquo;re more than someone who sends the odd CV your way and manages interviews around your hectic diary. We&rsquo;re sounding boards to many, the voice of reason for some &ndash; and a friendly face to have a moan to, usually about things like the IR35, for more than a few. We do things differently. To talk through any of the above or otherwise, our specialist marketing team is all ears &ndash; get in touch with our London office on 0203 758 7890.

IR35: What does it mean for UK marketing agencies?

​burn out phrasal verb of burn 1.be completely consumed and thus no longer aflame. Sound like anyone you know? Worse yet &ndash; does it hit even closer to home? The official definition of &lsquo;burn out&rsquo; is one which many of us can relate to. It&rsquo;s certainly a phrase which is becoming more commonplace and widely accepted as a legitimate occurrence in the corporate world &ndash; despite its beginnings in the world of rock and roll &ndash; affecting almost 600,000 Brits each year. Burning out is effectively the climax of a period of chronic workplace stress, resulting in physical and emotional exhaustion. To be frank, it&rsquo;s not good for anyone involved. And, with mental health at the forefront of everyone&rsquo;s mind in 2020, it needs to be addressed within your business before it happens. Prevention is the best way of mitigating the negative effect burning out has on your employees, so here are our top tips for keeping the team happy, healthy and moreover engaged with their jobs. Avoid pointless pressures This is a safe place &ndash; we can be honest here. I&rsquo;m talking about cutting out: -Meetings about meetings -Over-regular catch up calls (which could easily be done via email) -Micromanagement tactics, constant reporting etc In this modern world, there&rsquo;s no excuse to be under-utilising the many communication tools at your disposal as a business. Efficiency and productivity aside, these tight but essentially unhelpful and unnecessary deadlines to meet, places to be and time spent away from fulfilling more critical aspects of their jobs can leave employees feeling panicked and anxious when it comes to time-management. Could you ease some of that pressure by communicating more effectively throughout the day/week, to save the need for many of the above circumstances? Encourage breaks &ndash; think little but often It could be as simple as a walk to grab coffee, ten minutes spent in the kitchen listening to a podcast or just stretching the legs for a lap around the office; stepping away from the task at hand allows staff time to breathe &ndash; physically AND mentally. Taking time to reflect on what&rsquo;s happening at work, where they&rsquo;re at against their to-do list for the day and what they&rsquo;ve achieved so far is key to managing time and prioritising effectively. Those few minutes away from their desk will pay dividends in the long term &ndash; for them and you. Set solid expectations Simply put, when staff are unsure of what they&rsquo;re supposed to be doing, should have done or have left to do, it can cause stress, anxiety and even panic in some situations. Making sure that as a manager you&rsquo;ve effectively communicated everyone&rsquo;s role and responsibilities will leave no room for ambiguity and the (albeit, sometimes self-inflicted, but unavoidable none the less) pressure which comes along with it. Take time to communicate and feedback with staff, always making sure that they can approach you with questions about their responsibilities and where they stand. Talk about it If we&rsquo;re ever going to break the taboo about mental health, it&rsquo;s going to happen this year. Talk about it. Speak with your team on an ongoing and regular basis to make sure they&rsquo;re doing okay. And, if they&rsquo;re not, you&rsquo;ll at least be pre-warned and hopefully able to help in some way. Talking helps in so many ways &ndash; and, believe it or not, just knowing that they&rsquo;re able to talk about it if they need to in itself can help relieve the stresses and pressures which often lead to burn out. And while we&rsquo;ve got you&hellip; Let it be known, and always bear in mind, that you, business leaders, managers, owners and entrepreneurs &ndash; you&rsquo;re as susceptible, if not more so, to the perils of burn out, and all that follows in its wake. When you&rsquo;re on a plane, they tell you to secure your own oxygen mask before helping your neighbour; think of your business in this way too. If you&rsquo;re not in the right space mentally and aren&rsquo;t looking after yourself, how will you be able to do the same for your team? Share with us your top tips for avoiding or preventing burn out &ndash; is it something you&rsquo;ve experienced personally, or with a team member? Certus are proud to relieve at least one, sometimes fairly significant, part of workplace for our clients &ndash; our recruitment solutions are tailored to fit around you, your business and what you need. Get in touch today.

Burnout is a real thing – and you need to avoid it at all costs

​As the owner of a successful, London-based recruitment company, it might not surprise you to hear that I&rsquo;ve made a few hires over the past 19 years. And as the owner of a successful, London-based recruitment company who is currently growing, it&rsquo;s also no wonder that questions like the one above are front-and-centre in my mind at the moment; it truly is an age-old debate, and one which I don&rsquo;t believe there will ever be a definitive answer for. Should I hire graduates fresh out of university and make them my own, or look for those with experience to bring with them? Here at Certus we&rsquo;ve made successes of the weirdest to the most wonderful backgrounds; equally &ndash; cards on the table &ndash; we&rsquo;ve had some of the most promising simply not work as well as we&rsquo;d hoped. As a business leader, I&rsquo;m very much a believer in taking a chance on someone who impresses at interview and demonstrates the right drive (assuming it makes sense to do so*). Over the years I can honestly say we&rsquo;ve hired a real mix of the two &ndash; that is, grads without experience but with great educational backgrounds, and individuals who perhaps didn&rsquo;t go down the academic route but honed their skills in the workplace. Here are my honest, open thoughts about the pros of each &ndash; and remember that they&rsquo;re my opinions only. I&rsquo;d love to hear if you agree. Education: they know how to learn They might not know how to do the job yet but, I&rsquo;ve certainly found, in hiring someone with little-to-no work experience but a stellar education in hand, you&rsquo;ll find yourself with someone who knows how to pick things up quickly. Classroom learning can definitely transfer to the working world; university teaches strong research skills and the ability to listen, understand and then implement information. Sometimes it&rsquo;s not about whether someone has the capacity to learn, but if they know how to &ndash; education wins on this point, in my books (no pun intended). Experience: they have the basics down When you hire someone who&rsquo;s been working &ndash; whether in an office, as a personal trainer or even in retail &ndash; they have some fantastic skills already upon which to build. Those with working experience already possess the ability to communicate in a workplace setting &ndash; in a professional manner &ndash; and have more of an understanding of &lsquo;business language&rsquo;, shall we say. Their experience means they&rsquo;re less likely to need hand-holding from the off, and could prove them to be an asset to your business more quickly than someone who&rsquo;s had no &lsquo;real world&rsquo; experience (yet). A fast start is a good start. Education: they&rsquo;re used to reaching for targets If you&rsquo;ve been to uni yourself or ever hired at a graduate level, you&rsquo;ll know the pressure placed on students to achieve; just get this many more marks and you&rsquo;ll up your percentage by X, or complete this extra credit to bump up your grade to Y. In the competitive world of education, students are constantly working towards a goal &ndash; which is incredibly valuable in the corporate world. Throughout their education, students are taught the concept of work for reward &ndash; which in turn teaches them how to properly manage time and how they operate best. How hard did I work to get to this point? How much more could I achieve if I worked even harder? And who wouldn&rsquo;t want to hire someone with this exact mindset? Experience: they just know what it means to work Simply put? Hire someone who&rsquo;s already had a job, and they&rsquo;ll understand what it means to get up and get their ass to work, whatever the weather. I am by no means saying that attaining a degree is easy, nor am I suggesting that those who choose to continue their education rather than join the world of work are lazy; it&rsquo;s just a different way of life, a different scale. Hiring experience over education means that this person understands: I have a responsibility to this company. I have a responsibility to do this job, come hell or high water, on their time and not my own. It&rsquo;s just different. Of course, there&rsquo;s so much more to it than what&rsquo;s on a CV, and every single person is different regardless &ndash; refer to my earlier comment about who turns up for the interview and pulls it off, where others just don&rsquo;t. Hiring for experience over education or vice versa isn&rsquo;t a science &ndash; it&rsquo;s about finding the right person for your business, someone who will come to embody your values and take your business&rsquo; goals as their own. So, tell me &ndash; what do you look for? Is there a definitive answer to the education vs experience debate? What are your personal experiences? *This obviously only applies if no specialised skills are needed &ndash; but then again, training&hellip;?

My Personal Musings: Education or Experience?

Marketing is a funny one, in terms of a &lsquo;business function&rsquo;. It&rsquo;s largely regarded as one the easiest to outsource (being beaten only by accounting as the first to go, for those interested) and yet as a small business, starting to grow that function in-house from the beginning can be absolutely key to developing your brand, core values and company culture. I spend a lot of time strategising with my clients (particularly the smaller-but-growing businesses) about their marketing teams &ndash; rather, their marketing goals. Because, sometimes, it doesn&rsquo;t necessarily warrant a new hire. I know, I know &ndash; a recruiter telling you that you don&rsquo;t need to hire someone. Thing is, I consider myself a consultant first and foremost; ultimately, if hiring a new employee or employees into your in-house marketing team isn&rsquo;t what&rsquo;s going to help your business achieve its goals this time, I&rsquo;ll be the first to tell you. Marketing is about planning, strategy and execution. You need to make a solid plan, strategise as to how you&rsquo;re going to execute said plan, and then execute said plan. Simple, no? Here&rsquo;s where the big question comes in: Do you need to hire a marketing executive, or a marketing agency? Here are the things to consider if you&rsquo;re a small business and marketing is the talk of the hour: What&rsquo;s your capacity for commitment? By this I mean time, effort and dedication to actually seeing your marketing goals as a business come to fruition. That&rsquo;s not to say one requires less than the other &ndash; but the challenges you face as a business leader, when hiring either a new employee in your marketing division or choosing to engage with a marketing agency, differ greatly. Consider the time you have to dedicate to the actual recruitment process: working with your senior management team to devise and agree on the right profile. Sourcing that person (including potentially outsourcing to a recruitment partner like us &ndash; the irony isn&rsquo;t lost on me). A lengthy interview process, followed by onboarding, ongoing training, and so on and so forth&hellip; You need to take the initiative as a leader, be honest about what you have to offer a new employee and decide if it&rsquo;s the right time to bring in new talent. As for hiring a marketing agency? Be ready to jump in feet-first; for them to fulfil your vision, there&rsquo;s going to be meetings, constant communication and blood, sweat and tears spent to make sure everyone is on the same page. Giving your chosen agency all the tools for success is crucial to them fulfilling your goals so, although you won&rsquo;t be doing the work yourself/in-house, that&rsquo;s not to say you won&rsquo;t be involved every step of the way. For both options, it&rsquo;s a process of making sure you find the right person/company to support your own. Choosing the right marketing agency isn&rsquo;t one-size-fits-all, just the same as hiring the right candidate can present a challenge. Costs &ndash; immediate and future There&rsquo;s no way to dress it up or down &ndash; the cost (and resulting benefits, mind you) of both of these options are not insignificant, so pick your poison. Employing the services of a marketing agency can be pricey, but you know what you&rsquo;re paying for; along the way, you&rsquo;ll be able to determine the value of the services you&rsquo;ve received and will be able to ensure that the project is entirely complete before parting with full payment. Employing a full-time employee bears its own costs, and its own risks equally; hiring goes far beyond the salary. When you&rsquo;re working out costs, consider everything from training and equipment to workspace and resources. Whilst the investment is all being made to one of your own and you&rsquo;ll reap long-term benefits as such, you need to have a realistic idea of what it&rsquo;s going to cost full term. Do you need one specialised skill or a gathering of creative minds? Is this a one-time project, a business transformation period, a rebrand? What are your true objectives? When you engage with a marketing agency, you&rsquo;re engaging with a veritable goldmine of different backgrounds, thought processes, ideas and expertise &ndash; perfect if you&rsquo;re looking for some guidance, or to essentially hand the reins to a group of experts to complete such and such project: here&rsquo;s what we want, here&rsquo;s the deadline, let&rsquo;s get it going. If this is going to be a case of &lsquo;the more brains the better&rsquo;, employing a marketing agency is going to be the obvious choice. But, if you know exactly what needs to be achieved and the specialised skills necessary to get there, finding the right talent to bring onboard to your business and do so is going to be a lot easier. This way, you get what you need now but have also added an asset to your business &ndash; and especially for small businesses, each and every asset counts. There are, of course, many other pros and cons to each of these roads. The truth is, marketing is an absolute wonderland made up of amazing people with amazing minds &ndash; but, it can be a minefield. The consequences when marketing isn&rsquo;t done right can be dire; so, if you need advice or guidance across the board and at any level, we&rsquo;re here to help. Certus Recruitment Group specialises in graduate to executive level recruitment across all industries; my team within that are specialised marketing consultants who live and breathe what they do. Get in touch with our London team.

Marketing: Agency or Employee?

KPIs, KPIs, KPIs. Is there any other aspect of business operations so widely spoken about, furthermore contested? It&rsquo;s a divisive subject in the business community &ndash; where some live by them, others dispute their place altogether; some employ but largely ignore them, either way. Whether you utilise them day-to-date or oppose them entirely, if you work in the corporate world, you&rsquo;ve come across KPIs at some point. The fact is, the reason they&rsquo;re so highly contested is that KPIs are seldom implemented effectively, or used properly. It&rsquo;s not about the &lsquo;numbers game&rsquo; &ndash; it&rsquo;s about business efficiency. Let&rsquo;s stop thinking about KPIs as targets, first off. There&rsquo;s a clear distinction between the two. The definition of a KPI is, as it says on the tin, a key performance indicator &ndash; a figure which is (or should be) derived from information your business is providing you. KPIs should be used to evaluate the activity a business needs to undertake in order to achieve its targets &ndash; not as a target in and of themselves. Get it? Let&rsquo;s put it into real terms. Your business currently has 10 sales execs. The team&rsquo;s target is to generate &pound;100,000 in revenue each month, so each individual&rsquo;s target is &pound;10,000. Currently, each person is achieving &pound;8,000 per month; upon drilling down into their activity, you find that they&rsquo;re each making 8 phone calls per month. What can you take from this? Your business is indicating that your team&rsquo;s activity needs to increase in order to reach target, and is telling you, hypothetically, how much it needs to increase by. Analyse these tricky figures and you&rsquo;ll find it makes sense that, were they each to make 10 phone calls per month, everyone would hit that &pound;10K, no problem. But here&rsquo;s the thing &ndash; there&rsquo;s no need to now storm onto the sales floor and inform the team that they had all better hit those 10 calls, or else. Not in that fashion, anyway. You&rsquo;re not setting this as a target: your business is doing it for you.
It&rsquo;s a KPI, not a target. See? KPIs should be in place to motivate, not condemn. Information is king, or so they say, and it&rsquo;s our job as leaders to use it to our advantage. Particularly in sales and marketing, numbers do play a big part in the performance sense &ndash; from calls made to appointments booked, website clicks to conversion rates, your team is constantly running through figures in their mind. Adding a panel of KPIs into that mix, specifically when posing them as targets/must-hits, definitely creates potential for the pot to boil over from time to time. However, if you were to go to your team and say, &ldquo;Hey, we&rsquo;ve collated some really interesting info here which we think is going to help you do your job better/more efficiently, want to take a look?&rdquo;, any employee worth his/her salt will be clambering to see your notes. Keep targets and KPIs separate; monitor them both as equals. Your KPIs should be based on fact and fact alone. Here at Certus we get to know our clients well, and I&rsquo;d be lying if I said we don&rsquo;t sometimes have to do a little &ndash; err &ndash; re-education, shall we say. Often, businesses blindly set their KPIs based on industry standards or what their competition appears to be doing which, fundamentally, doesn&rsquo;t make sense. Just because Oracle&rsquo;s techs have to sit four appointments per day, doesn&rsquo;t mean that your hyper-growth, disruptive SaaS start-up should be doing the same. In fact, we need to move away from this idea of &lsquo;setting&rsquo; KPIs altogether &ndash; I reiterate, your business sets them itself. Monitor activity, productivity, operations, all aspects of your business, over time to understand what your KPIs are and where they should sit in terms of activity. Don&rsquo;t pull numbers out of the air and &lsquo;set&rsquo; KPIs based on what you think you should be doing &ndash; base them on what you are doing, and the improvements that you want to make. Remember, more doesn&rsquo;t always equal more. Numbers and humans behave in very different ways. When a calculator does a complex mathematical equation, it doesn&rsquo;t need to take into account that, maybe, number 3 is recovering from a bout of the flu, or that number 4 is off on holiday for two weeks this month. So, when you take a look at your figures and see that 25 calls equals 1 appointment, don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s as simple as commanding your team to make 50, and expecting them to achieve 2 appointments as such. It just doesn&rsquo;t work that way. I&rsquo;m not saying that we as leaders shouldn&rsquo;t always strive for excellence and improvement &ndash; but, alas, we are humans managing humans. And that needs to be at the forefront of our approach, always. We shouldn&rsquo;t be setting KPIs, we should be running our businesses based on the information it provides us &ndash; looking at them as the dataset they are, rather than another number to hold over our teams&rsquo; heads. As ever, love to hear your opinions &ndash; what&rsquo;s your approach to KPIs, and are you making the most of them across your business?

KPIs: Use them properly, or else

As a marketing recruiter, I&rsquo;m constantly surrounded by a hum of buzzwords &ndash; content strategy, advertising revenue, audience targeting, and so on and so forth. Something we all do (or certainly should be doing) as business owners/managers is creating an effective strategy to engage with both potential and existing customers, whether that be through the service you offer or the content you create to add value to their time online. But&hellip; How are you doing when it comes to engaging with your own workforce? Employee engagement is an integral part to growing a business successfully. Recent research says that almost 64% of business decision makers agree that retaining staff is harder than finding and subsequently hiring them, which simply isn&rsquo;t the way it should be. Do you take pains to ensure that your employees are engaged with your business and its goals? What is employee engagement? Employee engagement is probably better explained by what it is NOT, rather than what it is. It&rsquo;s not employee satisfaction, or happiness; it&rsquo;s not about how people feel whilst they&rsquo;re at work. Employee engagement can best be described as the emotional and mental connection an individual feels towards their place of work; it&rsquo;s achieved when an employee is working for more than just a promotion or paycheque &ndash; i.e. for the betterment of themselves &ndash; but works largely towards the goals and success of the business itself. Employee engagement is about how and why the person goes above and beyond their duties or job responsibilities, doing more than just turning up every day on time and leaving as soon as they&rsquo;re able to without getting a sideways look from the manager. Why is it important? For so many reasons &ndash; but, let&rsquo;s be practical here. Sourcing, interviewing, shortlisting and hiring the right staff costs money &ndash; and don&rsquo;t get me started on the price of onboarding each member you take on. Recruiting costs money, so any strategy you could put in place to reduce turnover is as vital to the profitability of your company as any other. But from a human perspective? Simply put, a more engaged workplace is a more effective, productive and ultimately happy one. With more than a third of individuals citing recognition as the most important aspect they look for in terms of job satisfaction, engaging fully with your employees breeds all of the above. Think of it like a marketing strategy. But internal, rather than external. What are some proven methods of improving employee engagement across the board? Use your internal communications &ndash; effectively How &ndash; and how often &ndash; do you communicate with your employees? Whether you&rsquo;re ten strong or a thousand, internal communications are a huge tool in engaging with your workforce, whether it be a monthly newsletter sent company-wide or regular group emails to keep everyone abreast of company news, goings on and exciting happenings. Simple things like this can make a huge difference. Recognition &amp; appreciation Do you regularly recognise the efforts of your employees? And I don&rsquo;t mean a quick, &ldquo;Well done, nice work John,&rdquo; &ndash; although these are important, too. What about using the internal communications mentioned above to give a shout out to top performers, or those who&rsquo;ve gone above and beyond in the past month? Or holding monthly/quarterly/yearly celebrations or award ceremonies, to recognise the hard work your staff is putting in? Recognition is undoubtedly one of the fastest ways to bring your employees in emotionally &ndash; and it costs nothing. Do you tell your staff often enough how great a job they&rsquo;re doing? If not, why not? Mentoring &amp; collaboration Ever heard the phrase, &ldquo;the left hand doesn&rsquo;t know what the right hand is doing&rdquo;? When you bring together different parts of your business &ndash; i.e. let the sales team work closely with tech on developing the website, or having marketing and sales talk through what a real &lsquo;hot lead&rsquo; looks like &ndash; not only will you better company relationships in general, but the all-for-one way of thinking becomes tangible. The opportunity to learn is often cited as one of the biggest motivators in the workplace, so having your teams come together to collaborate on projects is a great way to have them feel engaged &ndash; with one another, the business itself and the part they have to play in the grand scheme. Employee engagement is about emotional connection, and what better way to garner exactly that than by having individuals within the business mentor others? Why should employee engagement be top of your priorities in 2020? Fundamentally, because having a strong employee engagement strategy in place will improve productivity and efficiency, whilst saving costs long-term. Staff turnover will reduce, as will the percentage of employees passively seeking jobs &ndash; which might be higher than you think. To engage is to retain. Here at Certus we don&rsquo;t make one-and-done placements; we love to get into the nitty-gritty with our clients, about what makes your business tick and what could make it tick even more. More than just a recruitment company, we&rsquo;re your recruitment partner, strategy sounding-board and consulting do-gooders. Get in touch to learn more about how we&rsquo;re changing the recruitment game here in London this year.

Forget customer engagement: what about your own employees?

A Genius Piece of Marketing &ndash; How this property firm in America nailed it just before Christmas
 As a recruiter, I like to think I stay abreast of what&rsquo;s going on in the world of business; not just my own sector, but that of the wider markets both here in the UK and internationally. I read the news, keep on top of what&rsquo;s breaking, take note of rumours here and there which I feel might prove interesting to follow.
 So when I first read about the property firm in Maryland, USA, who just shared $10 million of profits amongst their 198 employees, safe to say my interest &ndash; both as a recruiter AND a marketing specialist, no less &ndash; was in fact piqued.
 It&rsquo;s a fantastic piece of marketing &ndash; an article alone would have gone viral, but the truly heartwarming video showing the reactions of each employee as they opened their secret envelope at the Christmas party, containing something in the realm of $50-270,000&hellip; I&rsquo;m in no way able to say that marketing was or wasn&rsquo;t behind the motivations of the company in doing what they did but, blimey, did it work either way.
 My marketing-specialised recruiter-brain began working overtime; it was genius, pure genius, both as a marketing and a motivational ploy. And here&rsquo;s why.
 Staff retention
 Do you think any of those employees, whether they&rsquo;ve been with the business six months or ten years, are going to be on the hunt for a new job anytime soon?
 One sure-fire way to maximise the longevity of your staff is to make them feel valued, appreciated, well-achieved. In a world where money does talk, what better way to say a huge thank you to each individual?
 If it&rsquo;s not about the money for you &ndash; company CEO Ed St John&rsquo;s heartfelt speech, which he gave ahead of the big reveal, certainly made his gratitude clear. He&rsquo;s a guy you&rsquo;d want to work for, and I imagine the very vast majority of these employees will continue to do so.
 Candidate attraction
 Place your bets for where the top talent in Maryland&rsquo;s property industry will be sending their resum&eacute;s in the new year.
 In today&rsquo;s day and age, to attract and engage with superstars you need to stand out; it&rsquo;s never been more important to differentiate yourselves as a competitor in the market. Pieces of truly outstanding and now viral marketing like this? Well, it&rsquo;s a stellar way to get your name out there.
 In sharing ten mil between their employees, these guys have pretty much guaranteed their spot on most candidates&rsquo; &ldquo;target employer&rdquo; lists &ndash; and not because people will be expecting the same again next year. Oh no, people will want to work for them simply for the fact that they did it once*&hellip; No obligations.
 *It would be nice though.
 Staff motivation
 We just gave you a bonus of $50,000 &ndash; so, how hard are you going to work for us next year?
 Let&rsquo;s be honest &ndash; it&rsquo;s Christmas time, the new year is looming and we&rsquo;re all already skint. If my boss coolly dropped a cheque for 50K on my desk right now &ndash; just before a nice, rejuvenating Christmas break no less &ndash; I think I&rsquo;d be feeling even more so ready to smash next year out of the park (hint hint).
 Seriously though &ndash; they&rsquo;ve just showed their employees what can come of hard work and dedication to the cause. You&rsquo;ve brought the team together, united not only in the bright lights and shared drinks of a Christmas party but one where you all witnessed and experienced something amazing; your staff are feeling more cherished, furthermore motivated than ever.
 Yep, this was one of the most fascinating, fun to follow and heartwarming &lsquo;Christmas miracles&rsquo; for me this year; marketing is a tough gig, and it&rsquo;s not exactly easy to do well.
 The fact that the real estate company was able to market their business whilst quite possibly changing the lives of some of their hard-working employees at the same time&hellip; Well, Merry Christmas indeed. Talk about embodying the season of giving.
 Have a watch of the awesome reveal video<a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6278600/st-john-properties-10-million-christmas-bonus/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>&ndash; it&rsquo;s sure to get you in the festive spirit, if all else fails.
 You&rsquo;ll be pleased to know that money isn&rsquo;t the only way to attract and retain your sector&rsquo;s top performers &ndash; that&rsquo;s where we come in. Here in London the candidate marketplace is stronger than ever; so, let&rsquo;s talk recruitment strategy and retention plans for next year. Get in touch.

A Genius Piece of Marketing

​With the advent of social media, us salespeople have had to adapt and develop our skills to include online outreach. LinkedIn has fast become another funnel through which we try to generate brand exposure, recognition and ultimately sales leads; many of the sales roles I recruit for involve some form of KPI for online selling, if not a full target. Whilst cold calling and more &lsquo;traditional&rsquo; selling methods are very much still alive and well, being aware and engaged with the social side of selling has never been more important. Now, one of the things we all can agree on is that there are ways to do it, and ways not to. There&rsquo;s nothing worse than receiving a connection invite followed swiftly by, &ldquo;Hi Tom, I work in the ______ space and would love to explain how this can benefit your business. When can you talk?&rdquo; It&rsquo;s interesting; when cold calling we&rsquo;re on a timer to get our pitch out there &ndash; to not waste the prospect&rsquo;s time, to ensure we add value in that instant&hellip; But many people don&rsquo;t like being cold called. So why would anyone enjoy the insta-pitch on LinkedIn, either? Everyone&rsquo;s different &ndash; in both their approach and how they receive approaches themselves &ndash; but there are some fundamentals to get right at the very least. Here are my top tips/pet hates when it comes to LinkedIn business development: Slow down &ndash; sloppy won&rsquo;t sell By which I mean, grammar. Capital letters. Correct punctuation. If you&rsquo;re going to go down the route of copy and pasting, at least attempt to personalise the message in some way (although, in my opinion, it&rsquo;s not the way to go &ndash; you really should have a unique reason for approaching this person specifically&hellip;) At the very least, get the name right &ndash; we&rsquo;ve all heard our peers griping about receiving a message which starts with, &ldquo;Hi James&rdquo; &ndash; err, hello, but my name is Tom&hellip; And you&rsquo;ve lost me already. First impressions count, so start as you mean to go on. Spending a few extra seconds perfecting the detail in the message you&rsquo;re sending will pay off in the long run. Have your reason ready Whilst I&rsquo;m not saying you should start out with it, like you might do on a cold call, it&rsquo;s important to show the person you&rsquo;re reaching out to that you have value to add from the off. Have your reason for contacting them ready to go, without shoving it down their throat immediately; make it clear that you&rsquo;re connecting with them personally, specifically, not just an anyone-and-everyone approach. With that in mind&hellip; Avoid giving your sales pitch in the first message Here&rsquo;s where LinkedIn is a little different to a traditional cold call; when you&rsquo;ve finally gotten through to your prospect on the phone, it can be a bit of a scramble to get your pitch out and hook them straight away. However, using social media allows you to actually warm up and build some rapport before heading straight into &lsquo;selling&rsquo;. It&rsquo;s a little cringeworthy to simply send the old, &ldquo;Hi ___, how are you doing today?&rdquo; &ndash; to which many people wouldn&rsquo;t even feel obliged to respond &ndash; but you definitely have the opportunity here to build and nurture this prospect before pitching. Whether you&rsquo;re both members of a group, share a previous employer or simply want to ask a question about something interesting you&rsquo;ve seen on their profile, there are ways to build that rapport and ensure that this prospect knows this message was written for them and them only. Don&rsquo;t mumble I personally have received messages where I haven&rsquo;t the faintest idea what exactly it is this person wants to &lsquo;take just five minutes of my time to discuss&rsquo;, and other than making me unenthusiastic about whatever it is you&rsquo;re selling, it just makes me unexcited about your ability to articulate yourself as a salesperson. There&rsquo;s a fine line between being too vague and laying your cards out on the table &ndash; but it&rsquo;s really important that, when you do go in for the inevitable sales pitch or request for a catch up, you make sure this prospect knows what they&rsquo;re getting into &ndash; and if it is something they could be at all interested in. If you&rsquo;re selling financial software made for enterprise businesses and, ten minutes into the phone call you&rsquo;ve managed to arrange, they realise that a) you haven&rsquo;t done your research, b) your product is entirely irrelevant to them and c) you&rsquo;ve wasted their time&hellip; Well, it&rsquo;s a lose-lose. For everyone involved. None in the least, you. So finally &ndash; value your prospect&rsquo;s time Ultimately, your job as a salesperson is to add value in some way &ndash; whether through the products you sell or the service you promote &ndash; so make sure you&rsquo;re trying to do exactly that throughout the contact process. Value the time of the person you&rsquo;re targeting and you&rsquo;ll see an uplift in the results you achieve, both in terms of contacts made and the conversion to a real, hot lead. ---- We&rsquo;d love to hear your ideas when it comes to LinkedIn-focused business development activities &ndash; how do you feel when you receive an unsolicited message and what sort of approaches have you been more responsive to? As for those using LinkedIn as a business development tool &ndash; how have you found success?

LinkedIn BD: Dos and Don’ts

​Now, depending on your own personal situation you may have come across this term before outside of a professional environment. I&rsquo;m told that many people are left, phone in hands, wondering what it was they did or said to their potential new beau to have them disappear entirely, without so much as a text back&hellip; But ghosting doesn&rsquo;t just pertain to the dating scene. Sadly, it&rsquo;s a practice which has been slowly but surely becoming more and more prevalent within the wonderful world of recruitment, too. Ghosting by definition is to cut all ties and communication with someone, without explanation or notice &ndash; vanishing, essentially, as a ghost would. Spooky stuff. But beyond spooky it can ultimately be really, really detrimental, for any number of reasons. Before I go on, let me promise you that I know this: ghosting happens on both sides of the fence. It&rsquo;s well-known that one of the biggest gripes many job seekers have is a lack of response or feedback having been for an interview, and companies are even trying to mitigate this by adding addendums onto their job adverts which go beyond the usual &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t hear from us within 2 weeks, please assume you were unfortunately unsuccessful&rdquo;, going as far as to disclaim in advance their responsibility to supply candidates with feedback&hellip; We&rsquo;re all busy. But that&rsquo;s no excuse. A recent LinkedIn study announced that a jaw-dropping 95% of recruiters in the USA had experienced ghosting by candidates who were actively involved in an ongoing hiring process. I daren&rsquo;t wonder what the percentage would be here in the UK, where our recruitment marketplace is that much more saturated (more than 115,000 people are employed in our recruiting industry, with over 40,000 agencies in England alone. That&rsquo;s a lot of people, and a lot of candidates/clients in the mix). Simply put, ghosting anyone &ndash; whether that&rsquo;s someone who&rsquo;s interviewed with your business, a candidate you were working with or the recruiter who&rsquo;s put you in for that job &ndash; is not a good move. It&rsquo;s something we won&rsquo;t tolerate as a business, and something which needs to be wiped out of the professional world altogether. So, if you&rsquo;re after some no-holds-barred, no nonsense advice on how to be a better practitioner of non-ghoulish behaviours, here it goes: Recruiters: eat that frog &ndash; good or bad, make the call Just because your candidate didn&rsquo;t get the job, doesn&rsquo;t mean you shouldn&rsquo;t give them the courtesy of being let know exactly that. It can be uncomfortable to give negative feedback but &ndash; and this is a part of our job as &lsquo;consultants&rsquo;, remember &ndash; that negative feedback is going to help said candidate grow. A negative becomes positive when it&rsquo;s taken into account; in fact, it might even help them get the next job they interview for. Picture yourself on their side of the fence and, without sounding as exasperated as I sometimes am &ndash; just do the decent thing, guys. I was taught from the very beginning of my career that you never know where someone will end up and who they could be. That candidate you ghosted might just turn out to be a decision maker, business owner, hiring manager for a key target of yours one day&hellip; Hindsight is 20/20. Candidates: honesty goes a long way &ndash; don&rsquo;t be a time-waster Yes, we work with many candidates at any one time. No, you may not be the only person we have interviewing for this position. But, that is absolutely no reason to miss an interview without so much as a text to let us know. We&rsquo;re managing expectations here, too &ndash; those of our clients. When you don&rsquo;t show up to your interview, it&rsquo;s not just our time you&rsquo;ve wasted but the HR Manager who was going to meet you, his/her assistant, whoever else wasn&rsquo;t able to use that meeting room because we&rsquo;d booked it out for the hour, etc etc&hellip; If this isn&rsquo;t the job for you: tell us. If you sent out a thousand resumes, said yes to everything that came your way and now have twenty interviews arranged, many of which you&rsquo;re only vaguely interested in: tell us. If you accepted the interview purely because you felt uncomfortable telling us no: tell us. It cuts both ways &ndash; that interviewer you didn&rsquo;t show up might move on to a new organisation; they could end up being your boss one day, a potential customer even (or not, if they&rsquo;ve anything to say about it). You might simply share a mutual friend or connections and it just doesn&rsquo;t look good. You never know who&rsquo;s going to show up later on in your career and clear out those skeletons in your closet. Let&rsquo;s banish this shadowy practice from the recruitment world altogether &ndash; after all, job searching and hiring alike are tough enough as is. As a job seeking, respect your recruiter or interviewer&rsquo;s time and value it as you would your own. And, as a recruiter, take pride in the service you provide; it&rsquo;s something drummed in to each of our consultants one day one.

Ghosting: a scarily prevalent practice

​Why are we all so busy? We are all, without a doubt, busier than ever. Or so it would seem from scrolling through your LinkedIn feed; we&rsquo;re constantly bombarded with &lsquo;motivational&rsquo; posts from entrepreneurs, businessmen and women, students and the rest of the world who seem to have been to the gym, showered, dressed themselves in a suit and completed thirty other miscellaneous yet extremely productive activities, all by 7am each morning. I, for one, find myself asking: where do they find the time? The amount of time we have in each day hasn&rsquo;t changed &ndash; but they way we view it has. Once upon a time, life was leisurely; work came second to managing the home and family, breaks were taken regularly and workdays were, contrary to popular belief, shorter than we&rsquo;re used to nowadays. Back in the 1930s, famous British economist John Maynard Keynes even predicted that we&rsquo;d be working a mere 3 hours a day &ndash; and then only if we chose to do so. How has so-called &lsquo;time poverty&rsquo; become a thing? It seems to come down to mindset &ndash; the idea that we already don&rsquo;t have enough time to complete everything we want to, and therefore time spent not working should be considered a loss. Not the healthiest way to look at things. What does this mean as an individual? It&rsquo;s pretty simple &ndash; whatever your job title or level, being &lsquo;time-poor&rsquo; essentially means you&rsquo;re missing out on many or most things you&rsquo;d like to do &ndash; or, worse yet, need to do. How many of us have put off going to the doctors for want of a &lsquo;convenient&rsquo; opportunity to take time out of a busy workday? Have you ever had to cancel important events, holidays or otherwise due to work commitments? More and more studies are proving that time spent away from the office actually helps us de-stress, and eventually results in higher productivity with less hours worked. Yet, still there&rsquo;s a vast disconnect in this knowledge once in the office itself. What does this mean as a manager? As a manager, whether to a team of two or a team of twenty-five, you&rsquo;re being pulled pillar to post; from 1-2-1s and performance reviews to resolving problems on the floor, training and everything that comes in between &ndash; not forgetting the all-important admin you must complete &ndash; it&rsquo;s no surprise that so many Brits in management positions consider themselves under the cosh and wanting for more time to do their job. As a manager who feels &lsquo;time-poor&rsquo;, simply put, you need to prioritise your responsibilities and delegate when necessary. Regardless of your level or job title, there&rsquo;s no shame in asking for help &ndash; be that in delegating to an ambitious employee who might want to earn some extra credit, or looking to your own seniors for support. Whilst you have a job to do, undoubtedly an important one at that, bringing new talent to your team shouldn&rsquo;t go by the wayside. After all, aside from developing those you already manage &ndash; what could be more important than hiring the right people to move your business forward? We see it all the time &ndash; rushed recruitment processes, hurried offers made and ultimately time wasted because of the urgency placed on finding the next employee, yesterday. When you as a manager aren&rsquo;t able to dedicate the time it really takes to make the right hire, the best hire, the process isn&rsquo;t always a smooth nor productive one. Hiring the right person will undoubtedly take time out of your day. But, utilising the services of a recruitment partner such as us takes away a massive percentage of the leg work &ndash; and we&rsquo;re experts in doing exactly that. We know you&rsquo;re busy; so are we, giving you back some of that time you so need in your day to day. From the resourcing process (which is likely to be hours spent researching and subsequently headhunting the market&rsquo;s top talent, or referring to our database of contacts built over the years) to pre-qualifying each candidate (nine times out of ten involving a face to face interview, conducted by one of our specialist consultants) and then managing the process throughout (from arranging, feeding back, offering and negotiation) &ndash; why spend your precious time doing the bits we can do for you? After all, it&rsquo;s our job. If we as recruiters feel as though we&rsquo;re time-poor, it&rsquo;s because we&rsquo;re helping our clients feel the opposite.

Time Poverty vs Growth

​In the previous article (https://www.certusrecruitment.com/insights/first-impressions-it-s-in-our-dna-part-1-) , I talked about the science behind first impressions &ndash; why we make them, the part they played in our evolution, and generally why they&rsquo;re such sticking points for us human beings. The fact is, whatever the reason first impressions happen, they do &ndash; and it&rsquo;s important to know how to make a good one. Without further ado, let&rsquo;s work through this from the beginning: Timing is everything A very famous man once said &ldquo;Five minutes early is ten minutes late&rdquo; &ndash; and not only has it stuck with me, but it&rsquo;s never let me down yet. You make your first impression before you&rsquo;ve even arrived &ndash; that is, when you get there. We get it &ndash; things happen, unforeseen issues arise and sometimes, despite your best efforts, the world works against your good timekeeping. Plan for any eventuality, give yourself way more time than you need, and Do. Not. Be. Late. You&rsquo;re in &ndash; now what? Phew &ndash; traffic aside, you arrived on time. So, take a minute to straighten yourself out, make sure you look smart and ready. Take some deep breaths. Think about how you&rsquo;re presenting yourself, and be ready for your interviewer to make an appearance at any moment &ndash; possibly, having been having a gander at you for a couple beforehand. We&rsquo;re not just talking about what you&rsquo;re wearing here &ndash; if you&rsquo;re sat in a waiting area, don&rsquo;t slump in your seat. Sit up straight and present a positive, professional image. Stand, even, and take a look around you; show an interest in any plaques which may be dotted around, photographs on the walls, certificates etc&hellip; It&rsquo;s not all how about how you&rsquo;re dressed (although it helps to be dressed appropriately) &ndash; it&rsquo;s how you present yourself as a whole. The meet-and-greet This is it &ndash; make it count. If you are still sitting, stand &ndash; always. Don&rsquo;t crush your interviewer&rsquo;s hand, but don&rsquo;t leave them wondering if you even took it or not either. Most importantly, smile &ndash; smile wide, and smile genuine. Make eye contact from the off and be ready with a question, or some means with which to build rapport (here&rsquo;s where those certificates you&rsquo;ve been looking at for the last ten minutes come in handy). Get your interviewer talking, be the one to make conversation, and go from there. ---- The truth is, a lot goes on subconsciously that we don&rsquo;t know is happening during those crucial first moments. What we&rsquo;re talking about here is giving ourselves the absolute best chance to make those goings-on positive, rather than inadvertently enforcing any negative initial feelings or findings. I could go on forever &ndash; project confidence, be yourself, maintain eye contact but don&rsquo;t stare, have your elevator pitch ready, and so on. No matter what sort of job you&rsquo;re interviewing for, industry, level or title, and no matter how many first impressions you&rsquo;ve made throughout your professional life so far: each and every single one is different, so it can&rsquo;t hurt to keep reminding ourselves of the basics. Do you have any stories to share about first impressions? Have you ever met someone who you weren&rsquo;t convinced on immediately, but managed to turn it around? Or vice versa? We as recruiters meet hundreds of candidates each year and are constantly having these first impressions happen to us &ndash; it&rsquo;s part and parcel of what we do to make, review and then develop that first impression into an understanding of each person we meet; their skills and experience, where they might fit within the scope of one of our client&rsquo;s teams. We&rsquo;re proud to do what we do thoroughly, properly and well. Get in touch today to discuss your next career move with a partner who&rsquo;ll truly guide you through the process &ndash; and we&rsquo;d love to hear what your &lsquo;first impression&rsquo; of us might have been, having read this article.

First Impressions: it’s in our DNA (Part 2)

​I&rsquo;m a recruiter &ndash; I know much about many things pertaining to the professional world, particularly my specialism. My specialism is marketing recruitment &ndash; identifying the gaps in my clients&rsquo; teams, and who we need to be targeting and reaching out to in order to fill them. When you first start working in recruitment it seems like a simple process; learn about job vacancy, find perfect candidate, make placement. As with most things in this life, it&rsquo;s not as simple as it seems &ndash; but learning the process from the ground up is the best way to be successful. The same thing can be said for marketing and, for the past few weeks, a question has been playing on my mind: should all marketeers know how to code? Is this the skill which is going to get candidates ahead of the competition when it comes to job seeking? Coding is the basis for most of the platforms marketeers&rsquo; efforts create these days &ndash; apps, websites, emails, essentially all aspects of digital campaigns. Wouldn&rsquo;t it make sense for the people cultivating the ideas and materials that go into it to understand the process back to front, inside out? Let&rsquo;s apply this to another industry; as a salesperson you wouldn&rsquo;t go about trying to sell without first knowing who your target client is, the demographic you&rsquo;re selling to, their budget, needs, requirements. You need to understand how your product/service/offering is going to be perceived from the other side first, in order to acquire the tools and knowledge to sell successfully. The same can be said for marketeers when it comes to coding. Code lies behind the vast majority of successful marketing campaigns, so wouldn&rsquo;t understanding it naturally allow you to generate more viable and innovative ideas? What&rsquo;s going to work, what isn&rsquo;t, what hasn&rsquo;t been done before &ndash; but could be. Not to mention being able to problem solve, bug fix, make quick but effective changes&hellip; Now, coding isn&rsquo;t a part of most marketing jobs on the day-to-day &ndash; it&rsquo;s not likely to be a part of the job description. I&rsquo;m not saying that everyone working in the industry should start taking on those responsibilities. What I&rsquo;m getting at is, simply having the knowledge could be enough to have you jump the queue on equally qualified and experienced applicants, could help you take your career to the next level &ndash; conversely, from a business perspective, considering these skills at interview could help you make the hire your team needs to go above and beyond. Learning what&rsquo;s going on &lsquo;behind the scenes&rsquo; in any profession leads to more well-informed and as such higher performing teams. And, in such a buoyant job market, differentiating yourself becomes evermore important. As a marketing professional, could learning at least basic coding be the way to go about this? The design and creative side is one thing &ndash; implementation and the costs involved within that, another entirely. And as an employer, refer to my previous article about upskilling &ndash; coding could be what your marketing team need for a well-rounded, versatile and skilful approach to your campaigns. Do I myself know and understand coding? I can&rsquo;t say that I do, beyond a basic level. What I understand is how to source, identify and communicate with top-level marketing professionals. I know how to understand the skills they possess (coding or no), and how they do or do not fit within an organisation&rsquo;s plan for development. Whether you&rsquo;re a job seeker looking for insight as to market conditions, current opportunities or profile feedback, myself and my dedicated team would love to talk; if you&rsquo;re an employer facing challenges in recruiting the top talent that is (or is not) currently on the job market, we&rsquo;re able to troubleshoot your process and bring about the change you need. I&rsquo;d love to hear your thoughts &ndash; what&rsquo;s the next must-have skill to expand your career in marketing?

Should all marketeers know how to code?

November 2019 &ndash; there are currently almost 65,000 sales jobs posted live across Reed, Indeed and Totaljobs. In London only. Let that sink in for a moment. Even accounting for a large number of those being duplicates &ndash; let&rsquo;s say half &ndash; we&rsquo;re still looking at around 30,000 sales-related jobs, in London ALONE. I daren&rsquo;t do a search across the UK as a whole (but let me know your findings if you decide to!). If I&rsquo;m a job seeker, one question springs to mind when I look at these stats as a whole: As a salesperson, how in the world do I choose my next role?! There are some obvious and simple ways to narrow this down &ndash; salary likely being the first, location the second. Now sector, experience level and so on and so forth&hellip; But, my guess is, you&rsquo;re still going to be spoilt for choice. What you&rsquo;re reading all over the place right now &ndash; that it&rsquo;s a candidate&rsquo;s dream job market at present, with opportunities galore, etc etc &ndash; is certainly true. But when does too much choice become counterproductive? There are many questions we ask the candidates we meet, beyond finding out about their current position &ndash; so here are the main things that myself and my team think really help make sure that the next sales role you take is the right one: Why are you leaving? Bear in mind the phrase, &ldquo;out of the frying pan, into the fire&rdquo;. Across the business we ask each and every candidate this question, of course, but let&rsquo;s drill down further into sales specifically. If you&rsquo;re looking to move on due to unrealistic targets (see my previous article), a toxic sales environment or any other manner of negative reason &ndash; one that&rsquo;s pretty well out of your hands &ndash; make sure you ask the right questions at interview. When you&rsquo;re looking for a new challenge, a more rewarding position or some other intrinsically motivated reason, it makes choosing a new role somewhat simpler&hellip; But when it&rsquo;s more to do with an actual &lsquo;issue&rsquo; as such, what you don&rsquo;t want to do is jump ship, only to find the same problems on the ground. Take time to understand exactly what you want &ndash; and DON&rsquo;T want &ndash; from the next position. Your skillset &ndash; moreover, what you want to do with it Regardless of what level your career sits at currently, it&rsquo;s important to consider the value you already possess in terms of a skillset. But what do you want to do with it? With so much choice on the market, you&rsquo;ll be faced with options where your skillset and experience will translate directly &ndash; and others where your experience may simply be considered as &lsquo;transferrable&rsquo;, rather than &lsquo;spot on&rsquo;. No need to fear &ndash; there&rsquo;s no shortage of employers who are open, nay keen, to hear about how and why you&rsquo;ll be successful, rather than how you have been in the past. When looking for a new sales role, consider whether you want to continue to grow and develop the skills, knowledge and experience you have already (whether that be within new business versus account management, the sector/industry you&rsquo;re used to selling to, the products and services you&rsquo;ve sold so far) or whether you&rsquo;d like to use that experience as a means to learn something new altogether. Your next employer It may sound obvious, but the company itself plays a huge part in determining the sales role it&rsquo;s offering. The working environment for the lone Business Development Manager at a boutique tech start-up is going to differ massively from that of a 30-strong sales floor within a blue-chip; both have fantastic benefits and downsides alike. But they&rsquo;re going to be very, very different benefits and downsides. Think carefully about your current employer and what&rsquo;s important to you in the next &ndash; if you&rsquo;ve been working as a standalone and crave that team environment, looking at a larger company is going to make sense. If you&rsquo;re feeling like a number and want to make an impact, a smaller business going through a high-growth period is going to appeal. Fundamentally, there are pros and cons to each role out there &ndash; and it&rsquo;s an exciting time to be searching. Our expert team knows the sales job market inside out, London and beyond; we&rsquo;re proud to be working with some of the most exciting businesses across the UK. We&rsquo;d love to hear from you, and to tell you more about the opportunities we&rsquo;re representing right now.

How to choose your next sales role

Gut Feelings: when to indulge and when to ignore
Interviewing can be a task.
Interviewing is also a skill.
Interviewing is a job which needs to be done properly, regardless of the who, the why or the when.
Since joining Certus almost 7 years ago as a &lsquo;Candidate Consultant&rsquo; &ndash; the sole purpose of my job being to source and interview jobseekers &ndash; to my current role at Sales Director for the London office, one thing has remained the same: I like to meet and interview the candidates I&rsquo;m working with, properly, myself.
The reasoning behind that comes from many places, but one thing we can all agree on as hiring managers or business owners is that during an interview, you get a gut feeling. It&rsquo;s something which forms naturally, sometimes from the off but often developing and firming over the course of the interview. In fact, in 2018 a survey of more than a thousand decision makers revealed that over a quarter of them &ndash; 28% to be precise &ndash; agreed that they were more likely to hire someone based on what their gut was telling them over experience or knowledge.
We&rsquo;ve all been there. As recruiters specifically, we learn to read our own instincts objectively. When I interview someone for a role I&rsquo;m working on, my gut feeling might be telling me this individual is spot on &ndash; but what will my clients be thinking? Equally, I could feel something off &ndash; but that could be my own personal past experiences coming into play. My gut feeling not being quite right doesn&rsquo;t mean that this person is wrong for the job &ndash; it&rsquo;s now for my client to decide. What we do is give you all the facts &ndash; the candidate&rsquo;s experience, their achievements, plus our honest thoughts and true feelings.
So when should we indulge these &lsquo;gut feelings&rsquo;, and when should they be put aside to focus on the facts?
As I mentioned before, interviewing itself is a skill, and some are more adept at it than others. As someone in a hiring position it&rsquo;s important to remember that when you&rsquo;re interviewing a candidate, what you&rsquo;re really looking at is a number of different skills, on the surface level only &ndash; namely how they present, how well they articulate themselves etc. Further to that, you&rsquo;re assessing their level of experience, the successes they&rsquo;ve had and the bits we can see &lsquo;on paper&rsquo;. What we can&rsquo;t do is assess accurately how successful they&rsquo;re actually going to be based on words alone; it can also become difficult to get a read on that person&rsquo;s personality, finding out who the &lsquo;real&rsquo; them is.
And you&rsquo;ll find that this is where the gut feeling often comes into play.
If all the boxes are ticked, there are no obvious red flags and they come across well, but still something isn&rsquo;t sitting right, inspect those feelings. Take time to think about what it is you&rsquo;re seeing, or not seeing, from this person. Try to take an objective view on what you&rsquo;ve heard &ndash; don&rsquo;t ignore the feeling you&rsquo;re having, but try to work out why you&rsquo;re having it.
Conversely, it could be that you&rsquo;ve met someone who really doesn&rsquo;t have everything you need &ndash; but your gut&rsquo;s telling you they&rsquo;re right, they&rsquo;re worth a shot and they&rsquo;ll be a successful hire. Again, it&rsquo;s important to delve deeper &ndash; could it be that you&rsquo;ve just built great rapport and would get along well with this person, which is causing you to mask the fact that they might be unable to fulfil the job? On some subconscious level, do they remind you of someone you know, or used to know, and have warm feelings towards? Do they simply have that aura which is great to be around &ndash; leaving you inclined to hire them, despite their missing pieces? Gut feelings work both ways, see &ndash; and at all levels.
Sometimes, it's alright to give the benefit of the doubt despite any instinctual misgivings &ndash; but it&rsquo;s as important not to ignore warning signs just because your gut&rsquo;s feeling good.
To answer my own question above, there&rsquo;s really no right or wrong way to interpret a gut feeling, but we must have them for a reason. The best advice I&rsquo;d give you is to stay open minded, and take the time to learn some interviewing skills yourself. Ask for facts and figures to back up any claims, where possible; equally, give candidates a chance to freeform answers in a more abstract way to learn more about their thought processes. Ask competency based questions to determine their actual experience, rather than how well they can talk &ndash; leave no room for speculation, by asking &ldquo;Tell me about a time when&hellip;&rdquo; rather than, &ldquo;What would you do if&hellip;&rdquo;
In business we tend to lean towards that which is measurable; facts, logic, numbers.
Unfortunately, our gut is yet to catch on.
----
It can be tough to know what you&rsquo;re getting at interview &ndash; so having experts at your disposal can bring some relief to a strenuous process. When you meet a candidate being represented by Certus, they&rsquo;ll have been interviewed by us beforehand; our job is to save you time, so that each gut feeling you get is a good one.
Get in touch with our team in London today to discuss how we&rsquo;re doing things differently.

​Gut Feelings

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​Individuality, and embracing it across your business There&rsquo;s a huge debate raging around the world about the education system &ndash; its shortcomings in terms of assessing each child for their strengths, and its pigeonholing of so many individuals into one streamlined, unimaginative system. But what about the workplace? Can the same be said for employment systems in the UK? Here at Certus, we talk to a lot of different people from different backgrounds, industries and businesses, each and every day. Working in recruitment you truly get a feel for just how different people can be; the way they communicate, relate to others, respond and operate. The corporate world is truly a melting pot of personalities, job functions, interpretations and opinions; it&rsquo;s not uncommon as a recruiter to meet two entirely different people, doing the same job for different companies, and find yourself stunned at the diversity in personality and impression of the two. Flexible working is one thing &ndash; taking into account each individual&rsquo;s personal circumstances i.e. picking the kids up from school or managing their health requirements &ndash; but what about considering the different ways in which us complicated human beings respond to certain things &ndash; by which I mean management styles, communicative methods and required tasks? When running a business within which certain functions need to be completed and certain goals achieved, by certain people in certain job roles, is it possible to accommodate everyone&rsquo;s preference? And what can we be doing as businesses to at least try our best to do so? &ldquo;The way management treats associates is exactly how the associates will treat the customers.&rdquo; Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart Whatever your business does &ndash; provide a service, product or otherwise &ndash; I&rsquo;m willing to take the bet that you likely offer solutions to customers in a &lsquo;bespoke&rsquo; manner; that is, tailored around them and their individual business needs. As a decision maker, you should be trying to incorporate this principal into dealing with your own employees. It&rsquo;s no secret that certain members of the team don&rsquo;t respond well to the tough-talking, blunt directive and &lsquo;micromanagement&rsquo; stance; so, take the time to actually get to know each member of staff, how they respond to what, and tailor your approach accordingly. Managing far too many people for this to be a practical means of action? Perhaps it&rsquo;s time to start considering that some line of middle-management might be what the business needs, and moreover could benefit from. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.&rdquo; Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple We all want to hire people who work well under pressure, who can make critical decisions when they&rsquo;re needed most. But what about those who actually NEED that constant push to properly react? We&rsquo;ve all worked with, or for, someone who does very little 90% of the time, saving their energies for when the boss is in; or, those who produce their most fantastic work at 5:30pm on a Friday, when everyone else is already on the tube home or buying the first round at the pub. As a manager or business owner, you equally need to identify which of your employees for whom the &lsquo;softly, softly&rsquo; approach proves counterproductive. &ldquo;True leadership stems from individuality that is honest and sometimes imperfectly expressed&hellip; Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.&rdquo; Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook It can be difficult, of that there&rsquo;s no doubt &ndash; if you&rsquo;re looking after a team of people with numerous individuals doing the same job, to employ different tactics for each can be daunting, time-consuming and often seemingly impractical. But, for the longevity of your staff, turnover rates and the overall growth and progression of your company, we should at least all endeavour to take a less rigid, more tailored approach. Whether that comes in the form of different communication, management style or even incentivising team members individually &ndash; one person could care less about the financial reward and simply be looking for open praise and recognition, whilst another may simply need that figure in mind to get grafting &ndash; we should all as leaders be trying to value the differences we see across our teams and nurture them just so. Individuality: exactly what it says on the tin. Managing and treating each person as exactly that &ndash; an individual.
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Individuality & Business: Enemy or Essential!

​First, there were cubicles &ndash; as many employees as humanly possible, crammed into as little space as could be spared, each with a phone, PC and swivel chair to boot. Then we moved beyond this &ndash; open plan was &lsquo;in&rsquo;, and water cooler conversation became a real thing. Fast forward a few years; job descriptions suddenly started including an actual section about the office you&rsquo;d be working in; from AstroTurfed kitchen areas to &lsquo;break out&rsquo; rooms (with the obligatory Xbox/Play Station, of course) and fresh fruit delivered daily, the office itself has now become a veritable workplace benefit, alongside healthcare, childcare vouchers and the like. And today? In 2019, it&rsquo;s as common to be selling the dazzling office space to potential employees as it is to be discussing how infrequently they need show up. Whilst some decision makers still hold the misgivings of old about allowing staff to work from home, there are definite pros to giving people more freedom; it&rsquo;s something which more and more people are wanting, nay expecting, whilst on the lookout for their next employer. Not only does it build trust, but ultimately, many individuals thrive when working entirely autonomously. Of course, there are others who&hellip; Don&rsquo;t. Depending on the job function, considering flexible working conditions for your new employees can be important to do &ndash; so let&rsquo;s discuss some of the pros and cons of homeworking. Pro: Less distractions = higher productivity Be honest &ndash; even the most laid back of &lsquo;bosses&rsquo; have had to ask the team to tone down the banter and get some work done at some point. If your employees are sat at home tuned into their laptop, rather than what James and Andrew are gossiping about over the coffee machine, productivity is going to increase as such. Con: More distractions = lower productivity TV. Deliveries. Washing up. Laundry. A fridge full of food. Mum popping round for a cuppa. Whilst there may not be the distractions of the team at home, that&rsquo;s not to say there aren&rsquo;t myriad more. There&rsquo;s always the chance that working from home creates more distractions, rather than less; with that being said, there are many workflow management tools available today which can help ensure that, regardless, the work is getting done. Some people just need the buzz of the office to get them into &lsquo;work mode&rsquo;. Pro: More remote communication = better communication The simple fact is, when working from home your employee may not have to hand the information/tools/resources which they need, which in turn encourages communication between employees &ndash; whether they need to call Sarah to understand these figures better, or send an email to the marketing team to chase up the lead report they requested, being forced into communication with teams and individuals who you may have otherwise not can&rsquo;t be a bad thing. Con: More remote communication = worse communication Ever read a perfectly friendly, professional email &ndash; then seen the dreaded &ldquo;Regards&rdquo; at the end? When communicating through text and email things can be easily misinterpreted; without advanced writing skills, it can be difficult to demonstrate tone of voice, resulting in things often being taken &lsquo;the wrong way&rsquo;. What might have been an easy going conversation face to face may be misconstrued, or a joke may be misunderstood. Whilst more communication is a good thing, it only is so if the communication itself is positive. Pro: Flexibility = happy employees Fact: life gets in the way. Whether it&rsquo;s picking up the kids from school or being home to accept your online grocery shop, fundamentally it can be a huge benefit for employees to have that one day of the week where they&rsquo;re able to schedule things around their life goings on, rather than having to struggle to make things work. And having that flexibility, that little less of a worry, is going to positively affect that employee&rsquo;s mood, period. Con: Too much flexibility = unhappy employees The truth about working from home? It can be boring, lonely, and sometimes extremely demotivating. What works for one doesn&rsquo;t work for all &ndash; and that applies especially for homeworking. Giving employees the option may leave them feeling obliged to take that day &ndash; think entering the office to calls of, &ldquo;What are you doing here? Go home, it&rsquo;s your day off!&rdquo; &ndash; and leave them feeling down and demotivated after a day spent struggling through at home. Some people simply work better, and happier, in the office environment &ndash; it&rsquo;s truly a case by case situation. ---- Of course, all of the above change completely depending on each and every different individual you employ &ndash; it&rsquo;s not a one-size-fits-all scheme, nor is there a right or wrong. Whilst some employees will relish the opportunity to prove to you that they&rsquo;re to be trusted away from the office, it may strike fear into the hearts of others, who simply thrive in the convivial environment of a familiar workspace. At interview stage, finding out what&rsquo;s important in terms of the practicalities of the job is important. Do they lack initiative and crave some form of micromanagement? Will they throw up a fuss at the mere mention of a paperwork day spent in the office? Is there a happy medium? Certus builds teams across Sales, Marketing and IT, from a graduate to director level &ndash; we&rsquo;re experts at understanding how your business works, and who&rsquo;s going to work for you (whether at home or in the office). Get in touch to hear more about how to implement flexible working schemes which are going to work for you and your new employees.

The Rise of Homeworking

​It&rsquo;s no secret that the job market is &lsquo;hot&rsquo; right now &ndash; that is to say, there are lots of jobs up for grabs and lots of businesses competing for the best candidates. And a competition it is; with platforms out there now specifically made for candidates to compare the many benefits each different employer has to offer, and more bells and whistles being added to a job offer than you can shake a stick at, businesses are having to go to the next level to secure the hires they&rsquo;re after. But, at the end of the day, an employee&rsquo;s happiness depends on more than how many social events you hit up together, the new fandangled &lsquo;break out area&rsquo;, and whether they&rsquo;re allowed to work from home once a week. What should you be considering as an employer to stay competitive, beyond token perks and those seemingly all-important benefits? Progression &ndash; real, proven progression. Your uncapped commission structure, pool table and monthly lunch clubs are only going to keep someone interested for so long. Let&rsquo;s be frank &ndash; in today&rsquo;s world, more and more people are chopping and changing jobs like it&rsquo;s fashionable. And why? Because they see other people in a different company gaining more recognition, promotion or otherwise, and think that the grass is greener. By being able to demonstrate true progression &ndash; by way of staff who&rsquo;ve actually achieved it, logically structured org charts or otherwise &ndash; and putting in place real, achievable targets, you give your new employee something to focus on and aim toward. Just saying, &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll progress if you do well,&rdquo; is no longer enough; you need to show them it&rsquo;s a real thing. Culture &ndash; and I don&rsquo;t just mean beers on a Friday. Yeah, you might have a beer fridge to rival all others &ndash; not to mention the all-important dress-down Friday. But what else is there to say about your culture? Culture within a company is about the ethos each of your employees embodies, the way they interact with each other, relationships which go beyond company dos and nights spent down the pub. That&rsquo;s important, sure &ndash; celebrating the wins is a sure-fire way to build team morale. But it should be so much more than that. Build a culture which people want to be a part of, and they&rsquo;ll stay with the business for longer. Build a respectful culture, where each employee understands the value their colleagues add, making for a collaborative workplace and happy team. And THEN go out for beers on a Friday. Open door policies matter. Simply put, in this day and age, people do not want to work in an environment where they feel as though they don&rsquo;t have a voice. Say you have an open door policy and, more importantly, mean it &ndash; you can implement this in so many ways but as a hiring body, you need to be willing to take on board what might come about as a result of such a policy. It could be as simple as cultivating a true non-hierarchical environment, where your employees can speak to you like an old friend (within reason), or you could bring in some kind of anonymous feedback system where your staff are able to have their say without fear of backlash. Remember, we&rsquo;re not just talking about employees having a good old moan here and there; you&rsquo;ve hired this person because you saw potential in them, so it stands to reason that they&rsquo;d have suggestions and ideas for improvements which could be made. Having a true open door policy gives employees something to consider outside of just coming to work, completing their own tasks, and leaving each day. It makes them a part of something bigger than their own responsibilities, and they&rsquo;ll feel more involved as such. More involved = more longevity. ---- Safe to say, hiring in 2019 is a two-way street. Whilst, of course, the interviewing candidate needs to prove their potential and worth to the business, it&rsquo;s by no means a reason to sit back and relax. Go beyond the bells and whistles to secure the top level candidates, and moreover, keep them &ndash; beanbags and beer fridges only count for so much. To talk about strategizing your hiring in the ever-changing and fast-moving employment market of today, get in touch. We&rsquo;re proud to call ourselves experts across the board.

Does Your Business Stand Out From The Crowd?

​With the UK unemployment rate still falling at a fairly steady rate, the job market these days is an encouraging place to be. It&rsquo;s a candidate driven market, which means that there are lots of companies hiring for lots of different positions &ndash; and there are NOT necessarily lots of unhappy, underpaid or demotivated candidates out there looking to fill these jobs. Now, that doesn&rsquo;t mean that as a jobseeker (whether tentative or committed) you&rsquo;re able to rest on your laurels and let the opportunities come to you. Whilst that&rsquo;s more likely to happen, with fewer candidates on the hunt you have to understand that each and every interview taking place is that much more serious &ndash; essentially, the competition is higher than ever, too. And, as ever, it&rsquo;s still possible to fall at that all-important first hurdle: the CV. Unfortunately, the &lsquo;7 second&rsquo; rule is still a real thing, despite favourable market conditions. So what is the 7 second rule exactly? No, I&rsquo;m not talking about dropping your lunch on the floor and picking it up within 7 seconds so it&rsquo;s &lsquo;still good&rsquo; &ndash; we&rsquo;re talking about the length of time it takes for somebody to open a CV and, rightly or wrongly, make a subconscious yes or no decision. Now, hear what I&rsquo;m saying: I&rsquo;m not telling you that people open a CV, scan it for a mere seven seconds and then say yay or nay, before closing it down and moving onto the next one. What I&rsquo;m trying to reiterate is the importance of standing out in those first crucial seconds, of showing the person who opens your CV that it&rsquo;s worth their time and attention. First impressions truly count, and people often forget that the true first impression you make is that of your CV. You wouldn&rsquo;t show up to an interview bedraggled, ten minutes late and then proceed to do your worst at explaining your skills and suitability (I certainly hope), so why would you allow your CV to let you down by being poorly written, or not containing the necessary detail, or even just looking&hellip; Well, a bit rubbish? I can tell you from years of hiring my own employees, let alone dealing with hundreds of clients hiring theirs, that preconceived ideas are real, first impressions count and moreover, they&rsquo;re extremely difficult to reverse. A CV should be succinct but detailed. It should be personal, truthful and candid; equally, it should be relevant to the position you&rsquo;re applying for &ndash; don&rsquo;t write in your profile that you&rsquo;re looking for a job in marketing when you&rsquo;ve applied for my engineering role. If this means tailoring your CV each time, do it. Your CV should be punchy and eye-catching, without a garish design distracting from the content itself. Don&rsquo;t let a sloppily written CV give somebody the wrong idea of who you are and what you&rsquo;ve done &ndash; unless it&rsquo;s a positive one, of course. You want the interviewer to be excited to meet you, to discuss the many points that caught their eye, from experience to education and even interests. Candidates &ndash; you&rsquo;re not expected to know how to write a CV properly, which is where we come in. Not only do we know what makes a good CV in general, you can rest assured that we know what our own clients want to see hands-down &ndash; we know what experience to highlight, how to portray your strengths and how to sell you in writing. And, no, we&rsquo;re not talking about &lsquo;doctoring&rsquo; CVs; we&rsquo;re talking about maximising your power on paper, the same way you&rsquo;d put on your best suit and game face for the interview itself. Clients &ndash; conversely, you can&rsquo;t be expected to know exactly what to look for on paper. We&rsquo;re trained to. When it comes to finding a &lsquo;diamond in the rough&rsquo;, it&rsquo;s our specialism &ndash; looking beyond the typos and terrible Word Art to get to the skills and capabilities the person possesses underneath. But, rest assured, by the time the CV makes it to you, you&rsquo;ll be able to quickly and efficiently get what you want and need to know from it. No one&rsquo;s falling victim to the 7 second rule here &ndash; not on our watch.

7 Seconds to Impress!

​On a day to day basis in the recruitment world we face a multitude of people, job roles and sectors, all of which encompass their own responsibilities, quirks and trials. With our various divisions here at Certus Recruitment Group &ndash; including Sales, Marketing, IT and an extensive graduate program &ndash; I find it interesting to wander the office and drop in on the different discussions from each team as to the progress they&rsquo;re making and challenges they&rsquo;re up against in finding the best candidates. There&rsquo;s one sector of recruitment which, to this day after having spent more than 20 years doing the job, poses more difficulties than the others in securing that stellar placement &ndash; and that&rsquo;s the wonderful world of marketing. But why, you ask? First, let&rsquo;s consider what someone who works in marketing actually does. It starts with an idea &ndash; you&rsquo;re able to brainstorm and use your mind to create new concepts whether it be a design, advertising campaign or otherwise. You&rsquo;re likely to be spending hours at a screen researching, scouring the web for information, ideas, facts and figures to determine where you&rsquo;re going with this. This info then needs to be collated clearly into a tangible &ldquo;this is what we should do&rdquo; format. Strategy needs to be drawn and goals set. And, eventually, you&rsquo;d better be ready to present your idea to the board/team/person who holds your budget, to get them onside. Now, let&rsquo;s consider the skills necessary to complete the tasks mentioned above. Creativity. Research. Statistics. Articulation. Personality. Communication. Sales. So, what we&rsquo;re looking for here essentially is a switched-on, free-thinking, numbers-savvy creative who knows their way around a spreadsheet, isn&rsquo;t afraid of public speaking, &lsquo;gets&rsquo; business and, at the end of it all, has personality enough that you&rsquo;d happily go for a beer with them at the end of a long day. AKA, to use a recruitment term, a unicorn. It&rsquo;s the scope of a marketing role which makes it one of the hardest to fill. Of course, it may be broken down into different levels and roles; that is to say, not every single position out there encompasses all of these responsibilities. Your Marketing Exec might come in at a graduate level to do the base layer of research &ndash; but why hire someone within whom you don&rsquo;t see all of the above traits, so that they might progress within the business one day? There are also myriad marketing channels, so one person may not be managing everything at once; but still, there&rsquo;s a standard of hoping to find someone who could, if they needed to, be on top of the lot. The true &lsquo;plate spinners&rsquo; of the business world, marketeers must hold such a plethora of both hard and soft skills &ndash; so it&rsquo;s no wonder they post a unique, but not insurmountable, test to recruiters such as we. As with anything, there is no such thing as a golden goose &ndash; employers understand that you might not find the whole package, and that&rsquo;s okay. In a sector which encompasses aspects of so many others, and for all of the reasons above, this is why we meet each candidate we work with. We want to be able to tell our clients, with confidence, that she&rsquo;s got just enough techy about her, but came across as lively and passionate, too; he knew his numbers inside out, and was extremely agile when it came to talk about innovating. We like to meet these people, shake their hand, get to know them &ndash; in the same way we do the employers they&rsquo;re going to be interviewing with. Marketing is a hybrid role of many others, and it takes a certain type. With so many moving parts, the process from screening to interview to potentially placing someone in their next marketing job is a long one, potentially in time and always in effort. We&rsquo;re not quite chasing waterfalls &ndash; but, even if we were, who doesn&rsquo;t love a challenge?

The Challenging World of Marketing Recruitment

​It&rsquo;s completely normal to feel some nerves before a job interview &ndash; you&rsquo;re putting yourself out there and it&rsquo;s probably a conversation the outcome of which you care about, but also for the simple fact that you&rsquo;re being thrust into what isn&rsquo;t exactly a comfortable situation. Nevertheless, you&rsquo;ve brushed up on your figures from the past two years, you know your CV inside out and back to front and you&rsquo;ve had a real think about those all-important competency based questions (&ldquo;Tell me about a time you did this,&rdquo; or, &ldquo;Describe to me a time when you effectively solved that problem.&rdquo;) You can answer all the questions about yourself &ndash; but what about them? In my years of working in recruitment, one of the biggest causes I&rsquo;ve found for those pre-interview jitters is a lack of understanding of the company themselves. Do you remember, as a kid, knowing that you had homework due for a lesson that day and not having completed it? Rebel or no, it isn&rsquo;t a good feeling, yet one so easily avoided; I like to think of candidates not having done their research in exactly this way. It should be a part and parcel of the interview process &ndash; arrange, research, attend &ndash; but unfortunately that isn&rsquo;t necessarily so. The short and short? A sure-fire way to send yourself into that interview with some more confidence is simply by knowing who the company is and what they do. That&rsquo;s where research comes in. And by &lsquo;research&rsquo; we don&rsquo;t just mean a quick Google search and glance over the homepage... Here are some quick and easy pointers for those hoping to take a more thorough look at the business you&rsquo;re interviewing with, what you should know and how to find it out: Get on LinkedIn To exercise somewhat of an understatement, LinkedIn is an invaluable tool when it comes to research ahead of an interview. Not only are you likely to find a succinct yet informative overview of the business on there, you&rsquo;re likely going to be able to do a cheeky recce your interviewer themselves &ndash; their position within the business, their tenure there, background beforehand and any other info they share on their page. This gives you the opportunity to show that you&rsquo;ve taken a real interest in them, and ask them pointed, personal questions; for now, this is the person you need to get onside. If this is how in depth you&rsquo;re going to go with their customers, suppliers or other business-critical contacts in future, you&rsquo;re getting a big thumbs up. Google the business &ndash; properly It&rsquo;s extremely important to go beyond the obvious when researching a company &ndash; sure, you&rsquo;ve checked out our website, read our &ldquo;About Us&rdquo; page and maybe you&rsquo;ve creeped on a few of our top guys on LinkedIn. Is that it? It doesn&rsquo;t take long to jump on Google and search for more than just the company website itself; what about any news articles which pop up? Have they been mentioned in their industry forums lately? Are there any industry-specific awards happening around this time, or of late, which could be of interest to them? And what about current affairs &ndash; does the recent Brexit announcement (another one? Really?) affect them in any way? Is their business seasonal? Could events happening elsewhere around the world have a bearing on the company? Do you know who their customers are, and are they in the news at present? If so, why? Go further than the first few results on Google; you&rsquo;ll find many interesting bits and pieces which make for insightful talking points or questions at interview, and really show that you&rsquo;ve gone that extra mile. Mystery shopping You need to know a few key things about the business, none in the least is: What do they actually do? Truth be told, with snazzy websites abound and SEO being prioritised, it can often be difficult to garner what the business actually does on a day to day basis, just from reading a website. And who knows better than someone who already works there? Unorthodox maybe, however it&rsquo;s not uncommon practice to make a &lsquo;mystery shopper&rsquo; call ahead of your interview to get the real low-down from a current employee. Pretend to be a potential customer, uni student, whatever works best for you, and ask the right questions to get the answers you need ahead of time. So, when that inevitable, &ldquo;Tell me what you know about us,&rdquo; remark comes up, you&rsquo;ve got the advantage of an insider&rsquo;s perspective. Ballsy? Sure &ndash; but, worth it for the edge during an interview? Absolutely. To recap, here&rsquo;s what you should know ahead of time: &middot; Who you&rsquo;re meeting &ndash; their background, position, etc. &middot; What the company does &ndash; their service or product offering, who their customers are, their history, key values, etc. &middot; Your own background &ndash; be solid on your dates, achievements, facts &amp; figures, etc. Going that extra step to prepare for your interview, I can almost guarantee, is going to help dissipate some of those pesky nerves. Not only that but, the more well-read you are on the business, the better you&rsquo;re going to come across&hellip; As in, the more likely you are to get the job. It&rsquo;s a no brainer, no?

Pre-Interview Research - How Much & Why?

​The Importance of Upskilling Your Marketeers As a marketing recruiter, it&rsquo;s fair to say that it takes all types &ndash; in such a diverse, wide-spanning industry we simply meet individuals from all walks of life. As a largely creative business function, marketeers are often found to be knowledge-hungry, business-minded and adaptable &ndash; to their surroundings, resources and audience. Which is lucky, really, because the scope of the marketing world is up there as one of those most continually evolving, changing and moving as quickly as the times do. Upskilling: a brief introduction Upskilling is pretty much what it says on the tin &ndash; it&rsquo;s either adding to or developing new skills amongst your workforce. Whether that&rsquo;s introducing a new piece of software for them to learn or sending them to school to understand the intricacies of a new technique in XYZ, upskilling can be an incredible way to enhance your business operations &ndash; especially when it comes to those who work in marketing. Marketing: the true meaning of &lsquo;movers and shakers&rsquo; You&rsquo;ve got to hand it to marketeers &ndash; they&rsquo;re hardy people. Having to keep on top of the constantly shifting and changing environment which they inhabit &ndash; from print to online, the advent of &lsquo;click bait&rsquo; and many other horrors the internet has coined, SEO optimisation which still has to read well and, of course, toeing the line between politics/humour/satire/emotive marketing, plus the hundreds of other variables they must consider at all times&hellip; Need I go on? It wouldn&rsquo;t be unfair to say that no other job function has had to evolve as quickly when it comes to learning and understanding new technologies &ndash; the interplay between the two is unlike many other sectors. Hiring vs helping When it comes to your marketing team, upskilling could be absolutely key to the stability of your long term strategy &ndash; and your staff are ready to learn. Whether it&rsquo;s moulding your junior exec into a number-crunching growth guru, or handing your copywriter the keys to all aspects of content, and so on and so forth, giving your employees more responsibility and more opportunity to work their mental muscles can craft you a busy, cohesive and moreover motivated marketing team. Breakdown: benefits of upskilling include&hellip; Stability and longevity. An employee who sees that you&rsquo;re investing in them, their skillset and their future is more likely to stick around for the long run. Not only will they be more motivated to do well by you, but the promise of further learning opportunities, especially to a marketeer, is likely to bring their goals and yours well in line. Loyalty. Fundamentally, as above, someone who feels valued within a team is more likely to work tirelessly in achieving the now-common goal you and they share. There&rsquo;s also such thing as &ldquo;putting one&rsquo;s nose out of joint&rdquo;; hiring externally for a role which a current team member feels more than capable of doing alongside their own can sometimes garner a touch of resentment &ndash; so it pays to think about who might be ready to take on the responsibility, instead. Purpose. Cultivating purpose amongst a team &ndash; the whole team mind you, not just within marketing &ndash; is crucial for long-term employee satisfaction and thus business success. Showing the team what they could learn is also showing them where it could lead &ndash; their career development is linked directly to the new skills and responsibility they&rsquo;re being trusted to manage. Purpose equals motivation, and motivation is directly linked to higher success. Happy customers. Fundamentally, the better at their jobs your employees are, the more v<a class=" tag-name" href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com/blog/tag/marketing-1">Marketing</a>&nbsp;<a class=" tag-name" href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com/blog/tag/article">Article</a>&nbsp;<a class=" tag-name" href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com/blog/tag/advice-for-employers">Advice for Employers</a>&nbsp;<a class=" tag-name" href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com/blog/tag/personal-development">Personal Development</a>alue they&rsquo;re going to add to the servicing of your clients. Having your marketing team up to date with industry trends, technology and goings-on means they can impart this knowledge to your customers &ndash; who will in turn become your best advertising platform. Technology is one thing &ndash; word of mouth another (possibly very lucrative) beast altogether. A strong succession plan. The truth is, hiring at management level can be tricky, particularly if your team is full of ready and raring marketeers who have big dreams (and who wouldn&rsquo;t want that?). In upskilling your team, you&rsquo;ll be able to pinpoint who is ready for what development and create an ongoing career development route for individuals across the board &ndash; creating a strong, unified marketing team who know your business inside-out, having worked their way up from within. Who&rsquo;d have thought &ndash; a recruiter encouraging you NOT to hire, and instead seek out the potential for development within your current team. In all seriousness, we tout ourselves as experts because we do have expertise to share; whether it&rsquo;s hiring strategy, recruitment budgeting or turnover consultation, we want to help, however we can. Get in touch with my team today to discuss any and all relating to the wonderful world of marketing recruitment.

The Importance of Upskilling Your Marketeers .

​Every team has its own culture based on the functionality of the role within a company and the personalities within the office. Typically, for a sales recruitment team, you would expect employees to be assertive and talkative &ndash; people with high energy and determination.
By identifying key traits of an ideal team, hiring managers can develop both an interview process and relevant questions to measure each individual trait. If this is your responsibility, take 5 minutes to think about the below tips.
1.If the position you&rsquo;re hiring for involves meeting clients or working with people, take the interview out of the office to observe how the candidate acts outside of a typical interview environment. Taking candidates for lunch is a good example because it allows you to observe how they treat others and how they cope in various situations. A little can tell you a lot about someone, such as waiting in a queue, walking down a crowded street and even the weather! Further, a more casual setting such as a coffee shop may allow the candidate to relax and open up to reveal more about themselves and their character.
2.People often make assumptions based on appearance and it&rsquo;s important to not come across as biased; it&rsquo;s not only appearance but also background and hobbies. To ensure diversity on your teams, evaluate candidates on the same objective criteria for the same positions. Be careful not to discriminate; hiring for the right culture fit doesn&rsquo;t mean that you hire people who are exactly the same. Instead, the values within the workplace should be reflected in a richly diverse workforce.
3.Being upfront with candidates about your internal culture and environment means that you can manage their expectations of what it&rsquo;s like to work in your office. Direct questions such as &lsquo;What&rsquo;s your ideal working environment?&rsquo; or &lsquo;What sort of culture do you thrive in?&rsquo; allow candidates to describe what they are looking for initially. You can dig deeper by asking about a time when a job didn&rsquo;t work out for them culturally and why; &lsquo;Tell me about a time when you worked with an organisation where you felt you were not a strong culture fit and why was it so?&rsquo;
4.Teamwork is essential in any office and by enquiring how a candidate would handle a range of challenges and how they approach problem-solving, can show how they might work with their colleagues. You could ask &lsquo;Give me a time when you helped a co-worker and what was the outcome?&rsquo; Or &lsquo;What is the most difficult problem you had to solve and how did you solve it?&rsquo; Analyse their responses based on how well it complements current employees at your company.
5.Finally, use the interview to introduce your company values. New hires often fail on the basis of not having the right attitude or values rather than the ability to perform the job. Therefore finding people who have a genuine authentic belief in your company values will result in a stronger culture fit than those who don&rsquo;t. Questions based on your company values allow you to evaluate how well the candidate demonstrates that they can embody the value.
So does part of your hiring process include a cultural fit interview with a clear purpose of assessing how the potential employee will fit within the culture of your organisation? Don&rsquo;t underestimate the power of the above methods to determine the success of the candidate.

Tips for interviewing candidates for a cultural fit

What is a &ldquo;Gap Year&rdquo;?
A gap year is simply a constructive &ldquo;time out&rdquo; to travel in between life stages. It gives young people a valuable learning experience where they can take on new challenges to expand their personal development. However, gap years are no longer just for college leavers. More and more adults who have a few years work behind them are also taking up the opportunity to go away on a gap year with many programmes being suitable for those taking a career break, retired or those simply needing a change of scenery for an extended sabbatical. Going on a gap year will broaden your view of the world and open you up to new experiences. It may even open a door to new career options post-retirement. Everyone talks about going travelling all the time and you can be sure to see a multitude of photos, videos and blog posts all over social media when they do go &ndash; let&rsquo;s just admit it, we&rsquo;re all jealous, they look like they are having great fun!
<h2>What are the benefits of taking a gap?</h2>
While a gap year gives you the chance to recharge your batteries and think about your future, it should be used to achieve much more than just a year-long break. With some proper planning, you can develop your gap year programme to build on your strengths, overcome your weaknesses and gain valuable life experience that cannot be taught in a classroom. A well-structured gap experience will add real value to your confidence and sense of achievement and can go a long way in helping you decide on what you want to do next. It will also &ndash; possibly more importantly &ndash; help you to understand yourself better and it&rsquo;ll say more about you as an individual (your passion, interests, ambition) than exam results. As the competition for university places and jobs gets hotter, a gap year could really push your application up. It demonstrates skills, determination and willingness and is inevitably an interesting topic of conversation in interviews.
<h2>What do employers say about gap years?</h2>
Employers are looking for candidates who can come in and hit the ground running pretty much straight away, so your CV must reflect your skills and experience to demonstrate that you are able to do the job in question. If you have enjoyed a well planned and structured gap year, you&rsquo;ll find you can draw on those experiences to prove you have what it takes. The increase in confidence and the skills gained on a gap year such as thinking on your feet, working under pressure, team leadership and an international perspective gained through working around other cultures, are highly sought after by employers.
City firms such as Deloitte and Slaughter &amp; May, openly welcome applications from graduates who have a vast range of experiences, including a gap year (a productive one though &ndash; not just a season in Ibiza!). These companies understand the importance of an individual&rsquo;s ability to show evidence of maturity, enterprise and constant commitment both in and out of formal education.
A retired recruiter of a major international company has commented, &ldquo;A well-organised gap year largely spent overseas is a powerful way of developing many of the personal characteristics that my company seeks in graduate recruits: initiative in planning the year, the commercial and influencing skills often deployed in raising money at the start, the teamwork involved in many projects, the drive that is needed to succeed in a very different environment and the international perspective developed from immersion in another culture.
Above all, the experience as a whole builds confidence &ndash; the confidence that comes from tackling a major challenge and succeeding.&rdquo;
So whether you want to go abroad to work with endangered animals, teach English, or partake in agricultural work, there is a gap year programme out there for everyone.
If you want to move straight into a full time, high paying graduate sales career,thisis a good place to start.

Thinking about taking a “Gap Year”?

​Put simply, disruptive talent is an individual who can bring new ideas, direction and drive to a business by challenging the status quo and revolutionising the way in which an organisation approaches things. We are talking about figures like Sir Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg and Travis Kalanick. People who can spot a trend before it has begun and someone who can &ldquo;shake things up&rdquo;.
Technology has played a major role in creating and honing disruptive talent. Companies such as Uber and Air BnB have been born out of a new way of thinking and a new approach to utilising resources. This technology has created markets that are transitioning at breakneck speed, making it hard for many companies to keep pace with competitors who are offering a faster and easier product or service.
This revolutionary technology has caused many of history&rsquo;s great companies to fail, such as Kodak and BlockBuster who failed to get ahead of competition or even just move with the times. So now organisations are actively seeking disruptive talent to combat competition in their market and find the &ldquo;next big thing.&rdquo;
Disruptive talent is necessary to create continuous advances, changes and improvements because this is what gives companies an &ldquo;edge&rdquo; and drives the economy into new ventures. So in this market, can companies succeed without it?
With the level of competition that companies face today alongside consistently declining economic growth and on top of consumer overload because we have so much to choose from, it is safe to say that without an innovative product or service, companies will never turn over the kinds of returns seen in the past. That doesn&rsquo;t, however, mean to say that they will fail. There are many who argue that actually, one super talent can&rsquo;t fix the huge multi-faceted issues that businesses face today and in fact onlycollaborativeworking is the way to success.
This could be a result of disruptive talent itself failing within a business, rather than the business failing at being innovative. Disruptive talent is ruthlessly ambitious and driven, often stepping on other&rsquo;s toes, even if they don&rsquo;t mean to. This bold and fearless approach is the reason that disruptive talent can be difficult to work with and team work is hard work! Peers often view them as stubborn and volatile which can impact on working relationships and they become labelled as &ldquo;insensitive&rdquo;, &ldquo;a pain&rdquo; or &ldquo;difficult&rdquo;.
But it is important for companies to remember that disruptive talent may not score highly on conventional measures of success such as teamwork, empathy and diplomacy and instead to test them on talent evidence and behavioural/ personality traits. So it is vital for a company to be able to distinguish between disruptive talent and just plain disruptive because genuine disruptive talent will be on a mission, with an intense focus and insatiable drive, but will understand the boundaries which are important.
Disruptive talent is a rare find and to harness it, requires a certain kind of support. A strong manager, who is able to clear obstacles in the way of new and better business practices and ideas, is essential as well as a resilient and supportive team and a robust governance model. Additionally, making key stakeholders aware of plans and providing a clear vision which is consistently and widely communicated, will avoid a misalignment of goals so that progress is not inhibited by internal factors. However, not everyone is born to be an entrepreneur and it would be detrimental for any company to put all their eggs in one basket. This is especially prevalent if you consider the rise of the &ldquo;gig economy&rdquo; alongside the number of start-ups, particularly in the tech field. Starting your own business is easier that is has ever been, so why would disruptive talent stay somewhere they feel caged, or even, accept a job offer that doesn&rsquo;t include free reign to create something new and different to their own specific design. Ultimately, companies who manage to attract, hire and hone disruptive talent will be those who send shock waves through their industry and siphon off a large chunk of the market away from the established organisations or alternatively, create a whole new market. These will be the businesses that boom rather than just survive, and there&rsquo;s a big difference between booming and surviving.

Can Businesses Only Survive in this Market If They Hire “Disruptive Talent”?

​It is common knowledge that an ironed shirt, clean teeth and brushed hair give you brownie points in a job interview, but does your success come down to much more? In today&rsquo;s world, the way you look and present yourself play an important part in how you are received; as a possible partner, friend and now, a professional in your career. However unfair it may seem, those who rate higher on levels of attractiveness have a better chance of being successful in a job interview, going further in their careers and even being paid more. This phenomenon is called the &lsquo;beauty premium&rsquo;, and sees attractive men and women gaining more success in their careers than their, shall we say, less photogenic colleagues. Human beings are hard-wired to respond better to people who are more attractive, according to Dr Gordon Patzer, Founding Director and CEO of the Appearance Research Institute. &ldquo;Good looking men and women are generally regarded to be more kind, talented, honest and intelligent than their less attractive counterparts.&rdquo; This theory reflects upon the way a person is viewed in the workplace as well. Studies show that a boss who falls in the &lsquo;good looking&rsquo; category is seen as more competent, collaborative and is considered a better delegator. Furthermore, anyone who is in a customer-facing, sales rep or CEO role is considered the &lsquo;embodiment of the brand&rsquo; and a reflection of the business, so it makes sense that attractive people in these roles climb up their career ladder quicker, and are taken more seriously. There are also downfalls to appearing too attractive however, as assumptions are often made about how a person got the job or people may question how skilled a good looking person is. In these cases, people may have to push harder to prove their worth in the workplace or in an interview, or strive to maintain trust and loyalty as a leader. This can ring especially true for women, who in today&rsquo;s image obsessed world are expected to emulate what is perceived as beautiful in the media. &ldquo;Whether it&rsquo;s about our appearance or whether or not to assert ourselves, we&rsquo;re damned if we do and damned if we don&rsquo;t&rdquo; says Bonnie Marcus, president and CEO of Women&rsquo;s Success Coaching. A lot of companies see an attractive woman as a distraction; a rather sexist way of thinking, considering how far society has come in terms of equality for women in the workplace. So how far do looks get you? It&rsquo;s one thing to show up with fantastic genes, but unless you put your skill set forward into actions and behaviours than unfortunately good hair and a great set of teeth won&rsquo;t get you very far. One critic of the &lsquo;beauty premium&rsquo; is Adam Eyre-Walker from the Centre for the Study of Evolution at the University of Sussex. He argues that the theory is a culture phenomenon rather than an evolutionary one. &ldquo;We are taught to look upon small women and tall men as desirable.&rdquo; Height, amongst other factors such as symmetry in the face, good teeth and a slim/muscular physique are attributes that define an individual&rsquo;s level of attractiveness in this day and age. &ldquo;Our preference for attractive people has been culturally created and not hard wired in the human species&rdquo; he continues. This reaffirms the idea that a person looking to further their career is better off depending on their skills and personality, which are longer lasting than looks. Being genetically blessed can be useful and there is no shame in admitting that and using it to your advantage in love, life and even in the workplace. It may get your foot in the door and a second glance, but a person with a great sales pitch, brilliant communicative skills and a strong work ethic is much more likely to leave the right lasting impression.

Does your level of physical attractiveness dictate your job success?

​Whether your business is looking to recruit a sales leader, a UI/UX designer or a team of graduate trainees, the challenge is significant due to current market conditions. Whilst talks of a Brexit based meltdown are abundant, the fact is that competition for good talent has never been greater and the sheer number of opportunities available to candidates (and ease of access to them!) makes recruiting great talent tough.
I read this week that the average graduate trainee looking to develop a career within sales is offered 7 different jobs before they make a decision. Put simply, 6 companies are not securing the services of the candidates they offer. Consider the time and effort invested in getting a candidate to an offer stage, only to be unsuccessful in securing them, and you'll quickly calculate that the cost of recruitment is increasing dramatically (not to mention the cost of NOT recruiting!).
The GOOD NEWS is that you can do something about it! By making some simple adjustments to your recruitment process you can remain one step ahead, maximising your chance of securing the best talent for your business.
Move quickly.&nbsp;Simple fact - in the current market most candidates are lost as organisations fail to keep up momentum in the recruitment process. Respond to applications and/or CV's as quickly as possible with an absolute time limit of 24 hours. Keep the gap between interviews as little as possible (ideally 2-4 days) and try to limit the number of times you bring candidates back. If your organisations' process dictates candidates must meet a number of people, ensure they are all available at the same time!
Feedback immediately and avoid indecision.&nbsp;In a competitive recruiting landscape it's essential to give candidates a positive experience and make your interest inthemclear. The simplest way to do this is to get feedback to them immediately following any interview - ideally on the same day. Delays in feedback inevitably lead to the candidate doubting your interest and this will result in a lowing of interest in your opportunity.
Sell your company!It may seem amazing in the current climate, but a significant proportion of senior managers are still of the opinion that "if the candidate really wants to work for us they'll understand and wait"! I have some bad news for you......they won't! Regardless of whether this is a reasonable belief to have, the reality is that the companies who are currently successfully recruiting are putting huge efforts into selling the benefits of working for their company. And I don't mean 'benefits' in terms of money/breakfast/leave etc. I'm talking about getting the candidate excited about what it's like to actually work for the company. This includes the culture, training &amp; development, how realistic targets are, access to senior management, clear vision and mission etc. If you help the candidate to visualise themselves being successful in your business, the transition to accepting an offer is a simple one!
Engage and get them started.Currently, somewhere between 25 &amp; 50% of candidates who accept a position are failing to actually start due to counter offers, either with their existing employer or others. There are two simple things you can do to avoid this and ensure your talent is secured. Firstly, get them started! Once they walk through your door they become emotionally connected to your business and are unlikely to consider further offers. Secondly, the second they verbally accept an offer, commence a program of regular contact until the candidate starts with you. Ideally, this will be direct contact with the recruiting manager rather than HR. Speak to them at least a couple of times a week, especially if there is a significant gap between acceptance and start. Talk to them about the exciting projects you have coming up, successes in the team, the training you've booked in etc. If you stop communications the candidate is given time to disengage - don't let this happen!
Wellthat's it. Four simple pieces of advice you can easily implement within your recruitment process to maximise success. I hope you've found this helpful and if you'd like any further advice or information on how to put together a rock solid recruitment strategy don't hesitate to get in contact.

Recruiting in a Candidate Driven Market

​The debate between degree and apprenticeship and which one of the two represents the best way to both grow talent and maximise income in someone&rsquo;s career has always been a hot topic for young people, parents and employers.
On one hand, the Government is planning to raise the quality and status of apprenticeships, targeting to have three million learners start by 2020. The introduction of theApprenticeship Levy&nbsp;will definitely change the way apprenticeships are funded in England, with all employers with a wage bill of over &pound;3 million now having to make an investment.
On the other hand, a recent study conducted by the multinational support services and construction companyInterserve,shows that degrees are still preferred over apprenticeships.
The survey has been sent to three key audiences among a representative quota sample of 5294 people: employers (511 senior decision makers in businesses in Great Britain), parents (4,307 adults) and young people (509 13-18 year olds), in April 2016. The result shows that apprenticeships are struggling to compete with university qualifications in London among each of the three groups.Only 2% of young people in London said they currently plan to do an apprenticeship.
In addition, only 7% of London-based businesses value work-based training programmes such as apprenticeships when looking to recruit. Finally, only 14% of parents in the capital thought apprenticeships would be a good choice for their children.
What do you think?

Apprenticeships vs Degrees: what is the best way to grow talent?

​Sometimes changing your methods of finding candidates can be essential in recruitment, particularly in the IT contract world where an immediate vacancy can spring up requiring urgent action with no time for job adverts. Coming into recruitment as a fresh grad I had tended to just go with what I had been told, after all, someone with 25 years&rsquo; experience will know how to source candidates better than I can. It was only when I heard Catherine Leggett speaking on 5Live one night that I realised our existing methods whilst working extremely well, might hinder some applications. Catherine is an employment consultant at the National Autistic Society, and she spoke exceptionally about the struggles that face Autistic people in the recruitment process. Typical recruitment methods may produce many challenges for autistic candidates at all stages of the process. Job descriptions with a long list of unnecessary skills can be off-putting. Interviews and communicating their own skills can be problematic, particularly when much of it is done over the phone. At Certus it is typical for our first contact with candidates to be over the phone, before meeting them and sending them to our clients. On the IT desk, we had been flirting with skill assessments to differentiate the best candidates from the rest of the pack. Even though we appreciated how important technical competency in the form of tests was in IT roles, phone conversations remained prominent throughout the process and it was only when I heard Catherine speak that I realised this may have put limitations on sourcing the best candidates available. Our IT Desk is in a fortunate position as it&rsquo;s very new. This means we haven&rsquo;t necessarily got embedded practices as is the case with many recruitment companies. When I realised how our methods had emphasised a candidate&rsquo;s ability to communicate their skills rather than the skills themselves, I decided to get in touch with the National Autistic Society to see how we could change this. It was made clear that rearranging some of our processes could open doors to excellent candidates we may not have&nbsp;accessed&nbsp;across the entire company. Changing the way our adverts are set up, aspects of our interview processes and placing more emphasis on a candidate&rsquo;s skillset through tests, we could massively open the number of suitable candidates available to us for any given role. Initially, our efforts will be focused on the IT desk, with hard work underway to adapt the process with a view to 2019 already. Many people will primarily think of autistic candidates that may have exceptional technical skills, and of course, given my role in IT recruitment, this is an aspect that was at the forefront of my mind when thinking about this issue. However, something the National Autistic Society are demonstrating so well is that Autistic candidates can offer so much beyond this stereotype. Employers are finding that autistic candidates demonstrate above-average levels of concentration, reliability, persistence, factual knowledge and memory and attention to detail. All of these are excellent attributes to have in a candidate. To put it simply Certus need the best candidates so that our clients are successful. In order to do this, we need to make sure our practices don&rsquo;t prevent people on the autism spectrum from entering the process. Hopefully adapting our strategy on the IT desk will be the start of an influx of great candidates to Certus. For any information, advice and guidance for employers and autistic jobseekers please visit&nbsp;<a href="https://www.autism.org.uk/services/work.aspx">https://www.autism.org.uk/services/work.aspx</a>

How removing barriers is going to benefit everyone Ian Piper

Established in January 2001, the Certus Recruitment Group has become a leading specialist recruitment consultancy with a global presence and a client list that is envied by our competitors. Revenues have grown consistently and are continually invested back into the business to enhance growth and reward those that contribute to our success.

Established in January 2001, the Certus Recruitment Group has become a leading specialist staffing consultancy with a global presence and a client list that is envied by our competitors. Revenues have grown consistently and are continually invested back into the business to enhance growth and reward those that contribute to our success.

Established in January 2001, we are a specialist recruiter working with businesses of all sizes from global &lsquo;Superbrands&rsquo; through to innovative start-ups and everything in between. Working globally we help our clients plan, source, attract, and retain world-class talent for their business. Our people are each specialists within one of our three practice areas; sales, marketing, and technical, operating at all levels of experience up to Director &amp; Executive level.

Established in January 2001, we are a specialist recruiter working with businesses of all sizes from global ‘Superbrands’ through to innovative start-ups and everything in between. Working globally we help our clients plan, source, attract, and retain world-class talent for their business. Our people are each specialists within one of our three practice areas; sales, marketing, and technical, operating at all levels of experience up to Director &amp; Executive level.

Established in January 2001, we are a specialist staffing company working with businesses of all sizes from global ‘Superbrands’ through to innovative start-ups and everything in between. Working globally we help our clients plan, source, attract, and retain world-class talent for their business. Our people are each specialists within one of our three practice areas; sales, marketing, and technical, operating at all levels of experience up to Director &amp; Executive level.

At Certus Recruitment Group our people are our greatest asset. We believe a coherent and motivated team of passionate people will always achieve more than a collection of individuals.The ongoing success and growth of our business are determined by our behaviours as commercially focused recruitment professionals who demonstrate expertise and commitment to the provision of service excellence to clients and candidates alike. We have defined these behaviours as:​

At Certus Recruitment Group our people are our greatest asset. We believe a coherent and motivated team of passionate people will always achieve more than a collection of individuals. The ongoing success and growth of our business are determined by our behaviors as commercially focused recruitment professionals who demonstrate expertise and commitment to the provision of service excellence to clients and candidates alike. We have defined these behaviors as:​

At Certus Recruitment Group our people are our greatest asset. We believe a coherent and motivated team of passionate people will always achieve more than a collection of individuals.The ongoing success and growth of our business are determined by our behaviours as commercially focused staffing professionals who demonstrate expertise and commitment to the provision of service excellence to clients and candidates alike. We have defined these behaviours as:​

"Certus has been simply fantastic. The support along my journey to securing my dream job has been faultless. They provided clarity throughout the process and offered guidance that has undoubtedly helped me prepare for a successful interview!"

We're always keen to introduce great talent to our extensive network

View job

We're always keen to introduce great talent to our extensive network

We're always looking to introduce great talent to our extensive network

At Certus Recruitment Group we recognise that our employees are our greatest asset, which is why we have developed a rewards and benefits package that recognises the value of your contribution to the business. From protection for your family through to discounts on gifts and events, our benefits are designed to ensure everyone benefits, regardless of their individual circumstances.

At Certus Recruitment Group we recognize that our employees are our greatest asset, which is why we have developed a rewards and benefits package that recognises the value of your contribution to the business. From protection for your family through to discounts on gifts and events, our benefits are designed to ensure everyone benefits, regardless of their individual circumstances.

Established in January 2001, the Certus Recruitment Group has become a leading specialist recruitment consultancy with a global presence and a client list that is envied by our competitors. Revenues have grown consistently and are continually invested back into the business to enhance growth and reward those that contribute to our success.We have a clear vision of where the company is going and how it will get there. This vision is shared with everyone at Certus and we work hard to create a vibrant working environment that provides real opportunity to develop, progress and prosper within the Company.To achieve our objectives we need great people and are always looking for applications from both experienced recruiters or from experienced sales, marketing or technical professionals who have a strong knowledge of their sector and are looking to forge a new career within a professional recruitment environment.

We attribute our success to our core values

Global Specialist Recruiter to the Technology Sector

Cookies are files that are recorded in temporary Internet folders on your PC. They're a useful tool as, by recording the way you use our site, they enable us to get to know you better. For example, we’re able to recognise you when you return to the site, identify your preferences so as to provide you with a more personalised service and speed up searches that you conduct when visiting.​You don’t have to accept them. Most browsers allow you to refuse cookies by activating the relevant setting (please check the help menu of your browser for more details) however, selecting this setting may mean that you are unable to access certain parts of our site.​Please note that unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you log on to our site.​Further Detail on Cookies​Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently remembering your preferences, and generally improve your web site experience. They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.​We can split cookies into 4 main categories:​Category 1: strictly necessary cookiesCategory 2: performance cookiesCategory 3: functionality cookiesCategory 4: targeting cookies or advertising cookies​Category 1 - Strictly necessary cookiesThese cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the website. Without these cookies services you have asked for, like register for job alerts, cannot be provided.​Please be aware our site uses this type of cookie​Category 2 - Performance cookiesThese cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how a website works.​By using our website and online services, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device.​Category 3 - Functionality cookiesThese cookies allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your user name and password) and provide enhanced, more personal features. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customise. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect may be anonymous and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.​By using our website and online services, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device.​Category 4 - targeting cookies or advertising cookiesThese cookies are used to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers. Quite often targeting or advertising cookies will be linked to site functionality provided by the other organisations.​We do have links to other web sites and once you access another site through a link that we have provided it is the responsibility of that site to provide information as to how they use cookies on the respective site.​You can find more information about cookies by visiting www.allaboutcookies.org or www.youronlinechoices.eu. Google also have a brief video which explains the use of cookies.

<h2>Our team</h2>
Our Senior Leadership Team has a combined experience of 60+ years of recruiting into the technology sector, with experience gained in sales, marketing and technical experience across the globe. They continue to be heavily involved in the business, operating at the coal face and remaining close to clients and candidates alike. Please feel free to reach out to any of our leaders to discuss any aspect of how Certus Recruitment can help you achieve your objectives. We look forward to working with you.

<h2>Our team</h2>
Our Senior Leadership Team has a combined experience of 60+ years of recruiting into the technology sector, with experience gained in sales, marketing, and technical experience across the globe. They continue to be heavily involved in the business, operating at the coal face and remaining close to clients and candidates alike. Please feel free to reach out to any of our leaders to discuss any aspect of how Certus Recruitment can help you achieve your objectives. We look forward to working with you.

Global Specialist Recruiter to the Technology Sector.

If you have any further questions or would like to find out more about how we can help your business grow, we'd love to hear from you. Just pick your preferred way of contacting us and we look forward to speaking with you soon.<ul><li>Pick up the phone and give us a call on +61 (03) 4050 7777</li><li>Click&nbsp;<a href="https://certusrecruitment.com/au/submit-job/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(234, 13, 140);">here</a>&nbsp;and you can send us details of your business and your current vacancies</li><li>Send us an email to: hello@certusrecruitment.com</li></ul>

There is no shortage of fantastic recruiters to choose from. There are those that specialize by sector or by function, there are large multi-site high street agencies, global players, and single-site niche businesses. So how do you determine which one will be best to support your business?​We believe the most important element is to choose a partner you trust. If you don't immediately feel they understand your unique situation and they don't go out of their way to really understand your purpose, speak to another. Your reasons for choosing may sometimes be difficult to articulate, however, after speaking you will quickly know which company is best to represent your brand.​And finally, whilst price is an important element in choosing a supplier, make sure you're calculating all the costs - not just the fee %. The company that delivers you a great shortlist the first time round, who organizes your stakeholders and minimizes wasted time will save you thousands over the course of the project.Ultimately, the best way to measure us is to speak to us. However, in the meantime here are a number of frequently asked questions that may just help you decide to include us on your shortlist!

If you have any further questions or would like to find out more about how we can help your business grow, we'd love to hear from you. Just pick your preferred way of contacting us and we look forward to speaking with you soon.<ul><li>Pick up the phone and give us a call on +44 (0) 204 538 8222</li><li>Click&nbsp;<a href="https://certusrecruitment.com/submit-job/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(234, 13, 140);">her﻿e</a><a href="https://certusrecruitment.com/submit-job/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;</a>and you can send us details of your business and your current vacancies</li><li>Send us an email to: info@certusrecruitment.com</li></ul>

If you have any further questions or would like to find out more about how we can help your business grow, we'd love to hear from you. Just pick your preferred way of contacting us and we look forward to speaking with you soon.<ul><li>Pick up the phone and give us a call on +1 737 201 9992</li><li>Click&nbsp;<a href="https://certusrecruitment.com/us/submit-job/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(234, 13, 140);">her﻿e</a><a href="https://certusrecruitment.com/us/submit-job/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;</a>and you can send us details of your business and your current vacancies</li><li>Send us an email to: america@certusrecruitment.com</li></ul>

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"Technology led businesses across the globe depend on us to drive growth through the delivery of innovative Talent Solutions"

"Technology led businesses across the globe depend on us to drive growth through the delivery of innovative Staffing Solutions"

We have a clear vision to be the Global Specialist Recruiter to the Technology Sector. To achieve our Vision we need amazing people who share our vision and subscribe to our values: Passion, Energy, Commitment, Integrity and Fun. If the Tech Sector excites you as much as it does us, get in touch or explore our current openings.

Great companies are built on great talent

We&rsquo;re always keen to introduce great talent to our extensive network.

We&rsquo;re always looking to introduce great talent to our extensive network.

Call Certus Now

Our specialist consultants can&rsquo;t wait to hear about your business!

Looking out for fresh talent for innovate organizations

At Certus Recruitment Ltd ("we", "us" or "our" for short) we and our group companies are committed to protecting your personal information. Your personal information (also called ‘personal data’) is the information which identifies you as an individual that we get from you and others in various ways. Under the Data Protection Act 1998 (the "Act") and the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (“GDPR”) specific obligations are placed on us in the way we handle this type of information. The aim of this privacy policy is to let you know what personal information we collect from you when you apply for a job with us or our group companies, when you use our website and when you contact us, how we store and use it, and how you can access and manage this information.​Your personal information may be stored online and therefore we take steps to ensure that our systems are well protected.​The registered office of the above company is at 1 Vincent Square, London, SW1P 2PN. Our company number is 12619774. We and our group companies, together with the products and services we sell and provide, are regulated by the Recruitment &amp; Employment Confederation (REC - https://www.rec.uk.com/)​Please note that this privacy policy only covers https://www.certusrecruitment.com/. Other websites belonging to us or accessible via links are not covered by this policy. If you access any of these sites, please check the privacy policy applicable to these sites (if any) before you submit any of your personal information to them.​So, what personal information do we collect about you?​We process the following types of personal data about you:• Contact details• Identification information• Information about past and current employment• Education and qualifications• Information about your lifestyle​We collect the personal information requested on our application forms and contact forms together with any comments or remarks that you may provide in free text fields (such as personal statements) or CVs (where applicable). We may also keep a record of references received from third parties (including those you give us, credit reference and fraud prevention agencies) and of any other correspondence or communication between you and us, whether written, e-mailed, or as a result of visits, interviews or recorded telephone calls.​We also monitor site traffic, and like most websites, we use a Unique Visitor Cookie (which is supplied and managed by a carefully selected statistics provider) to identify your PC by a random number (e.g. #12489). More details about cookies and how you can disable them can be found below.​We will (unless it's impractical) tell you if we obtain and store information from any other source and also how we intend to use it in accordance with this privacy policy.​Making sure your personal data is secure​Whilst we take steps to protect user privacy, no data transmission over the internet can be entirely secure. We therefore do not guarantee the security of personal information that you send to us, or your use of the site. Any personal information you do send is at your own risk but once we receive it we use strict procedures to safeguard it.​How do we use your personal information?​In connection with a contract between you and us or an employer… We (and any At Certus Recruitment Ltd group company may use and process your personal information where it is necessary for us to do so to in connection with or anticipation of a contract between you and us (or At Certus Recruitment Ltd group company) or an employer.• to process your job application and otherwise manage the recruitment process• help potential employers assess and process your job application;• help potential employers check and confirm the references that you provide as part of your job application;• check with any necessary regulatory, industry and/or security authorities relevant to the position that you have applied for; Our Legitimate Business Interest… We (and any At Certus Recruitment Ltd group company may use and process your personal information where it is necessary for us to pursue our legitimate interests as a business for the following purposes:• help us identify you so we know who we are talking to;• help prevent and detect fraud or loss;• to contact you with information about opportunities that you might be interested in from time to time via phone or post;• assess risk, carry out market research, statistical analysis, test systems, improve the way that we run our recruitment process and your application (including quality assurance) and analyse your application and recruitment history;• train staff and monitor our services. This may mean that we record our conversations or our correspondence with you to make sure we are providing you with a good service and to make sure we keep to our legal and regulatory obligations. Where you have provided consent… We and any At Certus Recruitment Ltd group company may use your personal information where you have consented for us to do so• to contact you by email or other electronic means about opportunities that you might be interested in from time to time;• to provide you with job alerts. This consent can be withdrawn by logging-in to your account on the website and updating your details. Unless otherwise stated, we will hold data processed through contractual and legitimate interests indefinitely. Data processed via active consent will continue to receive marketing relative to the initial opt-in until we have received a request to unsubscribe/opt-out.​Who do we disclose your personal information to?​We may make your personal information available to agencies and employers who subscribe with us or use our Website, working within the above ways in which we use your data. These clients may then use that information to contact you about specific roles via email, phone or post. Other clients or agencies should not send direct marketing messages by email or SMS to you unless you have consented (opted in) to this.​We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group, which means our subsidiary companies, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiary companies.​We may disclose your personal information to third parties:​• In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.• If at Certus Recruitment Ltd or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.• If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms and conditions to and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of At Certus Recruitment Ltd, our customers, or others.​How can you find out what personal information we hold about you?​You are entitled to see the personal information that we hold about you at any time. (If you write to, email or phone us and ask to see this information, it is known as a ‘subject access request’ or ‘SAR’ for short) You can do so by:​• e-mailing us at dpo@certusrecruitment.com inserting the words ‘Data Request’ in the heading or• writing to us at Data Request, Certus Recruitment Ltd, 1 Vincent Square, London, SW1P 2PN​Even if you don’t want a copy of your personal information, you can still contact us to check that the personal information that we hold is accurate or to let us know of any changes to your personal information. We always try to ensure that the information we hold is accurate, up to date and relevant and, as you are applying for a job with us, it is important that we have the right information in order to be able contact you. We'll be more than happy to make changes or to correct any inaccuracies.​You have the following rights when it comes to your data:• to object to any legitimate business interests processing;• to withdraw consent (only in respect of any processing which depends on consent);• to ask for your data to be updated or corrected (where it is inaccurate);• if we have carried out any automated decision making as part of recruitment practices, contest any such decision and ask for a human intervention;• ask for the client to stop processing for any reason or exercise their right to be forgotten;• ask for a copy of their information that they have provided to you electronically (such as their CV) in a portable format;• complain to the ICO.​External links from our site​From time to time we may include hypertext links to sites which are created by individuals and companies outside of our group companies. We do this when there is a particular relevance to the topic you're reading about. Whilst we endeavour to check that the content of these sites is suitable, we unfortunately cannot take any responsibility for the practices of the companies who publish the sites that we link to, nor the integrity of the content contained within them.​What if we update our privacy policy?​We do keep our privacy policies under regular review so please do check each time you use the site. You'll be able to read about any updates on this page - as soon as they happen.​If you have any questions or if you feel that we are not complying with the terms of this privacy policy please do contact us by e-mailing us at the following address dpo@certusrecruitment.com inserting the words ‘Privacy Policy Grievance’ in the heading.​This policy was last updated on Thursday 4th June 2020.

Supporting businesses going through transformation, managing a transition or completing animplementation, our contract services team understand the challenges associated with resourcingyour project. In addition to our knowledge of the technical functions, our understanding of projectmanagement methodologies and the project life cycle means we’re best place to identify the bestcontractors for your project.Recognising the importance of continuity, we ensure our contractors are managed and supportedthroughout the duration of your project, utilising the latest technologies to ensure a seamlesscontractor experience.

Put simply, we help technology businesses scale.

We're always keen to introduce great talent to our extensive network.

We're always looking to introduce great talent to our extensive network

We provide a bespoke, specialist recruitment service that adds real value to your organisation. We believe a truly great recruitment service is not about filling a vacancy, it’s about helping you scale your business. On every occasion it’s our job to identify the right candidate who, due to experience and cultural alignment, goes on to significantly contribute to the attainment of your organisations goals.

We provide a tailored, specialist recruitment service that adds real value to your organization. We believe a truly great recruitment service is not about filling a vacancy, it’s about helping you scale your business. On every occasion, it’s our job to identify the right candidate who, due to experience and cultural alignment, goes on to significantly contribute to the attainment of your organizations' goals.

Send a brief

Our specialist consultants can't wait to hear about your business!

Although we assess each application we receive, due to the volume of responses we are unable to respond to all enquiries personally.<a href="/au/jobs/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">View all jobs</a>

Although we assess each application we receive, due to the volume of responses we are unable to respond to all enquiries personally.<a href="/jobs/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">View all jobs</a>

Although we assess each application we receive, due to the volume of responses we are unable to respond to all enquiries personally.<a href="/us/jobs/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">View all jobs</a>

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